“Egypt may be working with the North Koreans on the contravention of sanctions that apply to North Korea. The thinking is almost certainly that if you’re going to do the waiver…[lawmakers] are going to ask the State Department to argue why.”

“Their attempted candidacies said to the Egyptian public that Sisi is doing a bad job and Egypt needs new leadership. That’s very provocative.”

“That [Egypt is] continuing to stonewall and obfuscate and pursue this course of action [regarding military relations with North Korea] indicates they think they can get away with it, and whatever price will be imposed on them will be bearable.”

“The fact that several of these would-be candidates came from the military was even more apparently threatening to him, and so using a variety of measures…the Egyptian authorities have managed to…disqualify [them] on very shaky grounds.”