Grant vital for lasting peace in Mideast Kuwait has granted $4 billion to help prop up Egypt’s troubled economy, taking the Gulf’s commitments to Cairo to $12 billion over the past days. According to a report by Kuwait News Agency, Kuwait will deposit $2 billion in Egypt’s central bank, make a grant of $1 billion and send $1 billion in oil and oil products. With such a big amount of money at stake, Kuwaiti citizens could not but react on why big amounts are being granted whereas according to them, Kuwait needs hospitals and other facilities. “Since the 1980s we have no new hospitals – there are some coming up but they are privately owned hospitals. It looks like we are less of a priority; you can barely see improvements despite surpluses since 2000. There are lots of pending infrastructure projects, and even the roads and bridges are crumbling. Why prioritize Egypt?” a citizen wondered. But local economic analyst Dr Hajaj Abu-Khudoor says, the grant is vital for lasting peace which is worth billion times the grant. “I think it’s the responsibility of Kuwait in the Middle East to stabilize the situation. If Kuwait will not support and will not do anything for the people of Egypt, it will be more disastrous. Kuwait is supposed to help, because Egypt supported us during the liberation,” Abu Khudoor argued. “We are seeing the suffering of people in Egypt, and they need help. People in Kuwait – especially those who are against it – should not worry because it goes straight to the people of Egypt and not to the government. This is not the first time we have given grants to other countries. Kuwait has been supporting 180 countries around the world, so this aid given to Egypt will mean a lot to Kuwait as well,” he added. Two leading opposition members slammed the grant to Egypt. The former MPs questioned the timing of the grant which happened one week after a military coup overthrew Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. The announcement came as Egyptian authorities intensified their crackdown on figures associated with the former government, ordering the arrest of Mohamed Badie, the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, and eight others for allegedly inciting violence. MP Musallam Al-Barrak in a statement published by a local daily said it is strange to see such a huge amount spent without being approved by the parliament, or even garner comments from candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections. He argued that the government was ‘forced’ to announce the payment after it was ‘exposed’ and that it was not planning to announce the payment’s amount. On claims that the grant aims to relieve the economic crisis weighing on Egyptian citizens, Barrak questioned its timing, “since the suffering isn’t new”. “Is it truly financial support to the people or the new regime?” he questioned. “If it’s the latter, does Kuwait accept playing the role of a country that interferes in the internal affairs of another country by favoring one party against the other?” he asked. Former MP Faisal Al-Mislem said “we can never accept any kind of support given to a coup against people’s willpower, or using financial support to back one side in its attack against the legitimacy that the Egyptian people expressed in free elections”. He warned that “public fund spending has gone out of control in the past few months during the absence of people’s actual supervision,” in reference to the parliament. Kuwait’s grant came a day after Saudi Arabia pledged $5 billion in aid and the United Arab Emirates $3 billion, reflecting their support for last week’s military coup in Cairo and their antipathy towards Morsi, the ousted Muslim Brotherhood president. Analysts say Egypt faces a funding gap of up to $23 billion over the next two years. The money from the Gulf will give it some breathing space until it is able to secure a long-delayed loan from the International Monetary Fund, which is conditional on the implementation of austerity measures and is still seen as crucial for restoring business confidence in the country.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 01:25:18 +0000
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