Following are excerpts from a TV program featuring retired Egyptian General Abd Al-Hamid Umran, which aired on Tahrir TV on August 6, 2012.

Abd Al-Hamid Umran: There can be no Egyptian national security without an Egyptian nuclear program. An Egyptian nuclear program – let's call it peaceful for the sake of argument – is about uranium enrichment. It's not about someone running a power plant in Mersa Matruh or somewhere, but about [domestic] uranium enrichment. Obviously, if you do, the entire world will turn against you, but for the sake of Egypt, President Morsi, or anyone in power, should withstand the pressure. They will give us hell, but at the end of the day, we will have the power to prevent anyone from insolently attacking us. For this reason, we must have an Egyptian nuclear program.

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[Israel] is willing to use a nuclear weapon against Egypt, if it finds itself in a difficult situation. What can prevent them from doing so is for Egypt to possess nuclear weapons and establish nuclear deterrence.

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