LONDON — Egypt’s vice president, Omar Suleiman, was long seen by Israel as the preferred candidate to succeed President Hosni Mubarak, secret U.S. diplomatic cables published Monday suggested.
According to an August 2008 cable released by WikiLeaks and published by the Daily Telegraph newspaper on its website, a senior adviser from the Israeli Ministry of Defense told U.S. diplomats in Tel Aviv that Israelis believe Suleiman would probably serve as “at least an interim president if Mubarak dies or is incapacitated.”
A U.S. diplomat who classified the cable, Luis Moreno, wrote that although he deferred to the Embassy in Cairo for an analysis of Egypt-succession scenarios, “there is no question that Israel is most comfortable with the prospect of” Suleiman.
