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| Africa North |
| Egypt to 'review' foreign aid, rely on Gulf assistance |
| 2013-08-20 |
| [Al Ahram] Faced with international threats to withdraw financial aid in response to its crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's interim government is responding defiantly and pinning its hopes on continued assistance from the Gulf. Several nations reacted to the clearing of two Cairo protests camps by Morsi supporters and members of the president's Moslem Brüderbund by security forces on Wednesday, which left hundreds dead and many more injured, by leveraging their economic assistance to the cash-strapped Arab nation. The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , which is meeting on Monday to discuss relations with Egypt, will likely suspend 5 billion euros ($6.7 billion) in aid pledged by the bloc last November, according to statements by European officials and experts in previous days. For its part, the United States has, according to anonymous administration officials cited by the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... on Sunday, taken steps to suspend the $250 million in annual civilian economic aid to Egypt, while it debates the fate of the remaining $1.3 military assistance package. Egypt's response has been intransigent, going as far as to question the very necessity of such aid. The outrage was most fiercely expressed by the Rebel campaign (Tamarod), which led the petition drive and the protests that led to Morsi's ouster in July. The military-backed movement launched on its official website a petition to demand the cancellation of both US aid and the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, in a initiative labeled "Reviving National Sovereignty." The Egyptian government has naturally been more measured in its reaction, though no less resolute in condemning what it sees as an affront on Egypt's national illusory sovereignty. Speaking at a presser on Sunday, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy told news hounds he condemned "attempts to internationalize Egypt's problems" as well as "threats to stop assistance to Egypt" by members of the international community. "As a result," the minister went on defiantly, "I have tasked the concerned bodies in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review the foreign aid received by Egypt to decide whether this assistance is being used in the best interest of many and whether it achieves the hoped-for results." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Gulf money, Russian weapons, we'll probably sell them food no matter what they do. From Egypts point of view its a win/win/win. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2013-08-20 14:36 |