SAUDI KING PLEDGES ECONOMIC SUPPORT FOR EGYPT
Riyadh, 8 Sya’ban 1435/6 June 2014 (MINA) – Saudi King Abdullah has pledged financial support for the government of Egypt’s declared President-elect Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
In a telephone conversation, King Abdullah congratulated Sisi on his election, saying Riyadh is ready to offer economic development assistance to Cairo.
“This is the Kingdom’s duty based on our religion, ethics and the joint destiny of the two countries,” said the king. Egypt is among few Arab states that diplomatically recognizes Israel, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Abdullah has earlier called for a “Friends of Egypt” conference to raise funds for the crisis-hit country.
Meanwhile, Israeli President Shimon Perez and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have congratulated Sisi on his victory in telephone conversations, expressing Tel Aviv’s readiness to fully cooperate with Egypt in all political and security domains.
Israel has imposed an air, sea and land siege on the Gaza Strip for more than seven years, while Egypt’s government has tightened its control on entry into the region since the summer of 2013.
On June 3, Egypt’s election commission officially declared Sisi the winner of the two-candidate poll. It put the turnout at 47.5 percent of the country’s 53 million eligible voters during the three-day vote. Some opposition movements, however, put the voter turnout at about 11 percent.
Sisi is scheduled to be sworn in as president before the general assembly of the Supreme Constitutional Court on Sunday.
Sisi led a military coup that resulted in the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president in July 2013. Since then Egypt has witnessed a heavy-handed crackdown of Morsi’s supporters as well as the Muslim Brotherhood members.
Sisi’s presidency places Egypt back in the hands of a top military official just three years after a popular uprising against former dictator Hosni Mubarak, an air force officer who ruled the North African country for almost three decades. (T/P012/E01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
