ISRAELI-CANADIAN LOBBYIST CLAIMS MYANMAR JUNTA IS AGAINST CHINA

An Israeli-Canadian lobbyist hired by Myanmar's junta said that the generals are keen to leave politics after their coup and seek to improve relations with the United States and distance themselves from China, Simon Lewis reported for Reuters.

Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli military intelligence official who has previously represented Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Sudan's military rulers, said Myanmar's generals also want to repatriate Rohingya Muslims who fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

In a telephone interview, Ben-Menashe said he and his firm Dickens & Madson Canada had been hired by Myanmar's generals to help communicate with the United States and other countries who he said "misunderstood" them.

He said Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader since 2016, had grown too close to China for the generals' liking.

"There's a real push to move towards the West and the United States as opposed to trying to get closer to the Chinese," Ben-Menashe said. "They don't want to be a Chinese puppet."

President Joe Biden's administration has denounced the coup and imposed sanctions on the army and businesses it controls. A U.S. State Department official declined to comment.

Ben-Menashe said he was speaking from South Korea after a visit to Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw, where he signed an agreement with the junta's defense minister, General Mya Tun Oo. He said he would be paid an undisclosed fee if sanctions on the military are lifted.

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