Saudi Minister Pledges To Finance Egypt In Wake Of Aid Withdrawal

[Purveyor]

Source: REUTERS

RIYADH — Reuters
Published Tuesday, Aug. 20 2013, 3:42 PM EDT

“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, Mohammed Morsi, 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.

Read more: Link thttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/saudi-minister-pledges-to-finance-egypt-in-wake-western-aid-withdrawal/article13873746/o source

[scooter rider]

1. Works for me.

Are we to take that as a promise or a threat?

[bemildred]

2. I took it as sort of a bleat of fear and outrage. nt

[another_liberal]

5. If democracy takes hold in the Arab World . . .

The days of the Saudi royal family are clearly numbered if democracy takes hold in the Arab World. They are willing to pay almost any price to keep the democratically elected government of Egypt out of power.

[bemildred]

6. They are screwed, just a question of time.

Demographics, depletion, corruption and incompetence, fundamentalism, and imperial decline (ours) will do them in.
One can never really tell, but I don't give them a lot of time. Been watching them for a while.

And now, when the political tectonic plates are moving, is when these things go down. The Middle East is burning. Again.

[kelliekat44]

10. It's been that way for the last 50 years, at least. They used to have us over a barrel(in more ways

than one). But with the strides we have made in reducing our dependence on foreign oil, I believe we don't need to satisfy them on every turn. However, their real value to the US is that they are crucial to keeping our options open on Iran...which is what is most important to Israel and thus our foreign policy.

[another_liberal]

11. Well said.

A very good summary of the situation.

[Snake Plissken]

3. Sounds like a win/win situation to me

Get rid of the Muslim Baggerhood and have someone else pay for.

[another_liberal]

4. Autocratic bastards with their feet on the peoples' necks . . .

Autocratic bastards with their feet on the peoples' necks helping autocratic bastards with their feet on the peoples' necks.

[Little Milly]

9. I cautiously agree.

But the prospect of Saudi Arabia promoting democratic reforms leaves me scratching my head and I wonder if they may be our proxy.

We have little influence in Egypt and may be using Saudi Arabia to advance our interest.

[Igel]

12. Not everybody is the US' sockpuppet.

In this case the KSA has been very clear for a long, long time.

They hate the Muslim Brotherhood. It's unruly. It's disruptive.

It's origins is with Qutb, a Pakistani Deobandi who lived in Colorado in the '50s and found that the level of personal freedom was insanely too liberal for a Muslim. Why, single women were allowed to dance with strangers, even if there was a chaperone, to the most outrageously seductive music. 1950's pop.

He went home and wrote a nifty little book that's still an Islamist classic.

The Muslim Brotherhood comes from his thinking.

So does al-Qa'ida.

The KSA may sympathize with some of the objectives of AQ and the MB, but they disagree with AQ and MB on the whole because they are a separate, independent, unpredictable power-base. They view the KSA as corrupt.

Better to fund less faithful governments that can keep people firmly in control than a firebrand government that might upset the apple cart.

[Little Milly]

13. What's a long, long time?

Saudi Arabia offered refuge to the Muslim Brotherhood after they were outlawed in Egypt.

[rafeh1]

7. saudi kings hate elections

They much prefer an army dictatorship in Egypt.

[jakeXT]

8. I don't know about that terrorism and sedition thing, in Syria it's anybody but the Brotherhood

One little-publicized consequence of the U.S.-Saudi alliance will be to curb the growing influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, a key Saudi goal. This has put the Saudi kingdom at direct odds with its neighbor, Qatar, the Islamic group’s prime Arab protector and promoter.

It has also placed the United States in the awkward position of taking sides between its closest Gulf allies. Qatar hosts the Pentagon’s main forward operations center, while Saudi Arabia is the keystone of U.S. efforts to build an Arab military counterweight to Iran in the Persian Gulf.

http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-saudi-qatari-clash-over-syria-8685