While the West calls for peace in Cairo, the Saudis are supporting Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, who led the ouster of Mohammed Morsi. The Kingdom has pledged to make up for any loss in foreign aid resulting from the militarys brutal crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. On Monday, the countrys foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal issued a hard-hitting statement via the Saudi Press Agency pushing back on the West. To those who have announced they are cutting their aid to Egypt, or threatening to do that, (we say that) Arab and Muslim nations are rich and will not hesitate to help Egypt, said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency. Arab states will never accept manipulation of their fates or tampering with their security and stability by the international community.
The European Union is considering whether to halt $6 billion in aid to Egypts new government, and in Washington, pressure continued to mount on the Obama administration to consider further steps. Several lawmakers said Obamas decision last week to cancel planned joint military exercises with Egypt and to delay delivery of four F-16 fighter jets doesnt go far enough. German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday suggested halting previously approved arms shipments to Egypt as part of a coordinated European response. Her development minister today told German radio that Berlin will make no further pledges this year of aid to Egypt, and that Germany wont negotiate this year any debt relief for the country.
Saudi King Abdullah, (l.), has pledged to make up for any foreign aid Egypt loses from the West.
Some analysts believe the Arab Spring and its aftermath is increasingly exposing an acrimonious division between the Gulf countries and the West over the future of the Middle East, one that is likely to worsen and threaten the ties linking the West and the royal families of the region. The split between the Saudis and the West over Egypt is not only underscoring policy differences over the Muslim Brotherhood, they say, but is highlighting a growing divergence of interests between Washington and the European capitals and Riyadh when it comes to political reform in the region.
For the House of Saud, stability and security trumps reform which could threaten the Saudi royals own hold on power, whether change comes in the form of democracy or Islamists. The Saudis remain very dubious about American policy toward the Arab awakening, believes Bruce Riedel, a director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, a Washington DC-based think tank. Riedel, a former CIA analyst, argues: They want a more robust American role in arming the rebels in Syria, support for Sissi in Egypt and unrestrained backing for the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain. Washington and Riyadh no longer share the same assessment of the threat, and that means trouble will continue in the oldest American alliance in the Middle East.
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Gulf nations split with West to back Egyptian military | Fox News