By ARAB NEWS
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has pledged $4 billion in aid to Egypt, the chief of Egypt’s ruling military council said Saturday. The aid will be in the form of soft loans, deposits and grants, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the council, was quoted by Egypt’s MENA news agency as saying. The agency did not provide a time frame or other details.
The Saudi Press Agency said Tantawi called Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on Saturday and thanked him for providing the financial assistance to his cash-strapped country.
The Egyptian leader highlighted the historic ties between the two Arab countries and commended the Kingdom for standing by his country during “these trying times,” the SPA said. The two leaders also discussed major regional developments and ways of strengthening bilateral relations.
Categories: Africa, Asia, Economics, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
“The West” often thinks that they are the only ones assisting other nations. The large development assistance from the Arab Oil States often gets ‘over-looked’, not to speak of the private donations. The ‘war on terror’ played havoc with the Islamic Charities of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, who were well funded and of course the vast majority of them had absolutely nothing to do with funding terrorists.
It reminds me of the Catholic Caritas NGO: When this charity opened a bank account in New York, funded out of the Vatican, the bank account immediately got blocked when the word ‘Afghanistan’ was mentioned.