ABU DHABI- Stability in the Gulf monarchies is essential for Egypt’s security, Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi said Sunday, a day after the United Arab Emirates pledged Cairo an extra $3.9 billion (2.8 billion euros) in aid.
The UAE and other Gulf monarchies backed the July 3 overthrow of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and have vowed to help the interim government address the economic devastation wrought by two years of political turmoil.
“Gulf stability is one of the essential pillars of the stability of Egypt’s security,” Beblawi told reporters in Abu Dhabi.
The head of the military-installed government added that “any harm” to the Gulf state’s stability would directly harm Egyptian national security.
Meanwhile, official Emirati news agency WAM said $1 billion of the newly pledged UAE funds are due to go to support Egypt’s fuel needs while.
The remainder is “aimed at improving the living conditions, lives and human development of the Egyptian people through a number of projects,” WAM said.
The UAE had previously deposited an additional $2 billion in Egypt’s central bank to be held without interest, in order to prop up Cairo’s currency.
It also transferred $1 billion in aid in July. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait pledged $9 billion in aid to Cairo within days of the army’s overthrow of Morsi, which came amid massive protests against the year-long rule of Egypt’s first freely elected president.
Beblawi’s visit to the UAE came as the Gulf state is due to try 14 Egyptians, along with 16 Emiratis, on charges of allegedly setting up an illegal branch of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
The defendants include doctors, engineers and university professors who were arrested between November 2012 and January 2013, Human Rights Watch said.
