A French Rafale Jet Fighter on the assembly line in a Dassault Aviation factory (Reuters)
France and Egypt were poised Monday to sign a multi-billion-euro deal for the first foreign sale of the Rafale fighter jet, as Cairo bombed targets of the Islamic State jihadists in Libya.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was to travel to Cairo later Monday to ink the 5.2-billion-euro ($5.9 billion) deal for 24 Rafale fighters that Paris hopes will prompt others to snap up its premier combat jet.
The decapitation of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, which prompted the air strikes earlier Monday, was an "additional reason for security" for Cairo, said Le Drian.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi "has a strategic need to ensure the security of the Suez canal, through which a large part of global trade passes," noted Le Drian.
"That is the main reason for the urgency to have both naval and aerial capabilities to ensure this security," he added.
The sale comes as welcome news to cash-strapped France, which is even diverting three jets away from its own airforce for the delivery due later this year.
French President Francois Hollande said the agreement -- clinched in only three months of negotiation -- provided Cairo with "a quality aircraft" and was important for Egypt "taking into account the threats existing around the country."
With Libya wracked by instability to the west and the threat from Islamic State-linked militants to the east, Egypt plays a key role in providing stability in a troubled region, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday.
In a joint statement released Monday, Hollande and Sisi called for a United Nations Security Council meeting on the threat from Libya and urged the international community to take "new measures," without specifying what they might be.
France is also hoping the deal will act as a catalyst to unblock hoped-for sales to other countries.
Eric Trappier, chief executive of Dassault Aviation, which manufactures the jet, has said he was "very confident" that three years of exclusive talks with India on the sale of 126 Rafale jets worth 12 billion euros would soon result in a deal.
He said talks were slow as Delhi wanted some of the jets manufactured at home in a bid to boost manufacturing, meaning that every nut and bolt had to be discussed.
Paris is also eyeing possible deals with Qatar and Malaysia.
"There is a psychological barrier that has been broken down," said Trappier in an interview with French business daily Les Echos.
"In terms of our image, it will help us get over the line in other countries," he said.
Attempts to sell the jet to countries such as South Korea, Singapore, Morocco, Switzerland and Brazil have seen the Rafale lose out to its foreign competitors.
'Alarming' rights abuses
Despite the cheering in Paris, the agreed sale has sparked fury from some groups over perceived human rights abuses in Egypt.
Amnesty International attacked the decision to sell the 24 jets and a frigate to a nation it accused of "alarming" rights abuses.
And others have criticised Paris of double standards by freezing its delivery of two Mistral-class warships to Russia over the Ukraine crisis but going ahead with the Egypt deal.
Sisi was elected in May 2014 with 96.91 per cent of the vote a year after toppling the country's first freely elected leader, Islamist Mohamed Morsi.
A subsequent crackdown on Morsi's supporters left at least 1,400 dead and thousands more in jail.
"Just because we are selling these Rafales to Egypt doesn't mean we agree with every point in their domestic policy," said Fabius in a radio interview on Sunday.
"When there are excesses that are committed, we tell the Egyptian authorities -- from our point of view -- and we are hoping to move step by step towards more democracy."
"But the stability of Egypt is a very important point."