Arabs ready to cover cuts in foreign aid to Egypt: Saudi
[Al Ahram] Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
said on Monday that Arab and Islamic countries will step in to help Egypt if Western nations cut aid packages to Cairo over a crackdown on Islamist protesters.
"To those who have announced they are cutting their aid to Egypt, or threatening to do that, (we say that) Arab and Moslem nations are rich... and will not hesitate to help Egypt," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
Prince Saud was speaking upon his return from La Belle France, where he held talks with President Francois Hollande
...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist...
, who strongly condemned violence in Egypt.
Hundreds of people have been killed in the North African country since security forces began a clampdown on Moslem Brüderbund protests last week.
US Senator John Maverick McCain
... the Senator-for-Life from Arizona, former presidential candidate and even more former foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution ...
called on Washington to suspend its $1.3 billion in annual aid to Egypt's military after it overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July.
But some US politicians have expressed concern
...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended...
that cutting off aid could endanger the peace treaty with Israel or compromise US privileges with regard to the Suez Canal.
Foreign ministers of the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
are to hold emergency talks on Wednesday to review the bloc's relations with Cairo.
At stake is nearly five billion euros ($6.7 billion) in loans and grants promised by the world's top aid donor to Egypt for 2012-2013. It includes one billion euros from the EU with the rest from European banks the EIB and EBRD.
Posted by: Fred 2013-08-20 |