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Page added on August 19, 2013
Saudi prince pledges to fill financial gap from any Western sanctions on Egypt
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Monday pledged to fill any financial gaps left by Western countries withdrawing aid from Egypt over an army crackdown on Muslim Brotherhood protesters that has left hundreds dead since last week.
Speaking to state news agency SPA in Jeddah after visiting France on Sunday, Prince Saud also accused Western countries of tacitly encouraging Muslim Brotherhood violence with their criticism of the Egyptian military.
“To those who have declared they are stopping aid to Egypt or are waving such a threat, the Arab and Muslim nations are wealthy with their people and resources and will not shy away from offering a helping hand to Egypt,” he said.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, has given Egypt’s military rulers its full backing since they overthrew the country’s first freely elected president, Mohamed Mursi, last month, saying mass protests against him showed he had lost legitimacy.
While Egypt’s Western allies have denounced the army’s crackdown on the Brotherhood, Riyadh has instead said the country is tackling terrorism and sedition.
“We see international stances that have taken a strange course… as if the aim is to cover up for the crimes, the burning of Egypt and the killing of its people,” he said.
Barack Obama last week cancelled annual military exercises with Egypt, while European Union foreign ministers were due to hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss how to press the Egyptian authorities for a compromise.
On Sunday, after meeting French President Francois Hollande, Prince Saud warned the West against putting pressure on Egypt to end its crackdown, saying it would not achieve anything.
The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power after the 2011 revolt that overthrew their long-time ally Hosni Mubarak unsettled Gulf Arab monarchies, who fear the Islamist group wants to spread its influence into their own countries.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait pledged to give Egypt $12 billion in aid after last month’s ouster of Mursi.
According to Egyptian Finance Ministry figures released in June, the state budget deficit for the first five months of 2013 nearly doubled from a year earlier to 113.4 billion Egyptian pounds ($16.2 billion). Saudi Arabia had a budget surplus of $103 billion last year.
9 Comments on "Saudi prince pledges to fill financial gap from any Western sanctions on Egypt"
bobinget on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 10:24 pm
This announcement by PM Prince Saud al Faisal is intended to calm the Egyptian stock markets.
It seems, on the surface at least, the Saudis are getting their own way again w/o needing to intervene militarily.
Just perhaps KSA did not think this one through.
Being such strong supporters of the Coup in Egypt added to the even stronger support shown to so called terrorist groups trying to overthrown Assad in Syria, puts The Kingdom at greater odds with various groups of Muslim fundamentalists.
To many devout Muslims The Kingdom may be a greater enemy then simply Iran, Iraq, Israel or the US.
DC on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 11:08 pm
O no, the US cancel war-exercises with Egypt. I sure bet that hurt. What were they going practice with the amerikan thugs? How to shoot unarmed civilians?
Arthur on Mon, 19th Aug 2013 11:18 pm
The KSA is moving itself into isolation; not that it has much choice. The survival of the Egyptian army is now strongly connected to the survival of the Saudi regime. If one falls, so will the other and if both fall, the global hegemony of the US will be over for ever.
GregT on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 12:08 am
” If one falls, so will the other and if both fall, the global hegemony of the US will be over for ever.”
As will the American dream, for more than just the Americans.
BillT on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 6:32 am
The ‘American Dream” is destroying the world. It is about to come to a painful end, but will take down most of the world with it.
Arthur on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 10:32 am
Yeah, yeah, the ‘Collapse Now’ superstition is still alive and kicking, even now that the TOD-lers implicitly have given us at least an additional 17 years of the good life, assuming the US army is not going to spoil things by over brachial behavior.
BillT on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 12:00 pm
Today or next year, but not 17 years. The Empire will not last that long so the nukes will come out before then. No? Why not?
What do those old men have to lose? Their lives? They are already near death. And the Jews want Armageddon as do a few million Christians fools. The death of the dollar will mean that there is a huge distraction needed. Considering that even the Syrian event is not noticed by the majority of people today, it will take something big. Something nuclear and in the US.
No, I am not advocating this, and I hope it does not happen, but it is what I see coming. And they will fall in all of the continents except, maybe Antarctica. After all, over the last 70 years, over 2,000 nukes have been exploded on this planet. What’s a few humored / thousand more?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY
Arthur on Tue, 20th Aug 2013 12:12 pm
Collapse as in your “will take down most of the world with it” is something different from a ‘collapse of the US empire’, which simply means bringing home all the troops and could very well happen soon. But the US economy is still in much better shape than that of the USSR in 1991.
And even a ‘western financial armageddon’, which is also very well possible within the next few years, happened to countries like Russia, Iceland and Argentina as well recently. Admittedly very inconveniently and all, certainly for retired people, but not the end of the world.
BillT on Wed, 21st Aug 2013 1:56 am
Arthur, those few countries did not have financial tentacles in every major bank, investment plan and corporation in the world nor did they have control of the world’s financial system like the US does today. The dollar is the global trade currency and when it goes, the rest of the world will collapse, at least for a while and that will end more things forever than you can imagine.