Ahram Arabic Portal published this news last night : A LE 50 billion deal between SCAF and Washington to release the U.S NGOs workers. The small news speaks about a deal behind the sudden release of the U.S NGOs workers that includes immediate financial aid from the Gulf to Egypt !! Oh Yes the Arabian Gulf !!
According to that report based to the statement of anonymous official source to the e-news portal of Egypt’s first official newspaper : Saudi Arabia gives us $3.5 billion , Qatar gives us $ 4 billion , UAE gives us $ 3 billions , U.S gives $ 1.3 billion as military aids and $ 3.5 billion from IMF as well $ 1 billion from International bank and another 1/5 billion from the African development bank.
Well this is a lot of money compared to the bail the U.S embassy in Cairo paid and considered by many public figures in the country now as a bribe.
Why do the Arab Gulf states need a pressure or rather a permission from Washington to give us aids to release the foreign NGOs workers !? Why do Arab countries specifically KSA , UAE and Qatar interfere in an Egyptian American issue like that ?
It is very insulting to the Arab Gulf states to be part of this deal and wait for a pressure or an order from the US administration to give us financial aids so the government and SCAF would release those NGO workers !! So much for Arab-Arab cooperation indeed ? We needed help for months and it seems that they do not care for us except when the US gives them an order , screw the big slogans of Arab nationalism.
This is why I do not want our Syrian brothers to trust this Gulf support to their revolution , it is not that honest nor sincere.
The United States only care for its interests but one must wonder What if these employees were guilty ?? Would not this be taking an advantage of a country in an economic need with weak leadership ??
To be honest after reading that news I began to think about these tweeps I read the other day from Blogger and tweep Ahmed Sarhan wrote last weekend about a certain deal and the pressures on Egypt.
Of course the weak leadership got the biggest share from blame , I do not know how much failure SCAF needs to prove that it is incapable of ruling this country as it should or any president should. Now worldwide SCAF and the Egyptian government look as if they took those foreign NGOs workers hostages for economic aids in a disgusting way. SCAF has not got that bright image in the world for God sake , it is a military junta in the eyes of many especially with the mistakes, crimes and violations that took place last year.
If SCAF was intending to release the U.S NGOs workers from the start in return of an economic deal , why it humiliated the judiciary in Egypt like that ? Why did it allow that propaganda campaign in the media that made from the NGOs workers trial something equivalent to our Egyptian National dignity and then in few days the deal was sealed and the Egyptian National dignity tune was shut up !!? Where did the Egyptian National dignity tune go ?
SCAF pro-Supporters and Egyptian Nationalists are having now an emotional shock in what their new idol has done from betrayal to them. I am not waiting to hear a full transparent explanation for what exactly happened.
I will not speak about the Egyptian army because I know this will not be the first time the Egyptian army is humiliated because of the involvement of its leadership in politics. Hopefully it will be the last time insh Allah.
I will not speak about the Egyptian government because after the statement of the Egyptian iron lady Faiza Abu El Naga that she did not know about the release of the foreign NGOs workers from the media , I know that everybody now is jumping from the ship and putting the blame on SCAF directly and indirectly.
I know some will say that I should shut up and be thankful for the aids we got because of the bad economic situation but me and millions of Egyptians are tired of that trade off for years now.
In another random thought The United States , Saudi Arabia and Qatar are now united against the El Assad regime.
This whole NGO ordeal was a stone that hit two birds. The first was that after the pressure build up against SCAF, they had to divert ppl's attention and what better scenario then a foreign agenda supported by evil American NGOs. Egyptians are extremely susceptible to conspiracy theories and if you show some maps and cash and blame it on Americans they'll easily buy it.
ReplyDeleteIt is also true that the aprehension of American citizen was used to twist America's arm. The IMF and the Arab countries didn't want to lend a transitional government, at the same time SCAF isn't ready to transfer power. With reserves running low and not covering 3 months of imports it was going to be sooner rather than later that we start seeing bread riots and situation wud spiral out of control. When the IMF came in january they said that it would take them three months to decide on the loan which was simply too long. Meanwhile Hazem el Beblawi had said several times that signing the IMF deal would comfort our Arab neighbors into lending us. This means that all that SCAF had to do is have the Obama administration pressure the IMF board into speeding up the process. Typicaly Obama would claim that he has no jurisdiction over the IMF board in the same sense that SCAF has no authority over the Egyptian judiciary. The Americans tried to play the aid card but let's face it, Egypt was already on the brink of economic collapse, 1.3 billion in weapons is a small sacrifice to ward off bread riots. When US realized that SCAF is not bluffing they turned up the pressure on IMF and consequently the Arabs followed suit.
Mind you that Egypt's economic situation could've been much better had SCAF been willing to hand over power smoothly. It's not true that the IMF and Arabs want us to kneel first before they help us, they simply want to see stability and vision, something SCAF and ganzoury cud never provide. So instead of transferring power to someone who cud, they resorted to this arm twisting. They did it not to protect Egypt, but to keep the lid on its ppl who cudve started a hunger revolution with all it's anger directed at SCAFs failure. SCAF had to gamble with the Americans in order to protect their dictatorship.
The published news is attributed to a 'source', which is a code name for hoax, rumors and planted disinformation. Common sense lead us to believe that SCAF is the source of this disinformation (as usual), to create illusion of huge $$ gain against a backdrop of humiliating political & judicial blunder. Reliable information in issue like this should be verified from multiple independent sources, not a single un-named source, happened to be a mouth-piece for SCAF.
ReplyDeleteAside from that, foreign aid & price for political favors never worked and never will. Egypt was paid a huge sum (a fact) for it's participation in Iraq war. Did this money reach the poor or created jobs for the unemployed millions? You know the answer. The only money to benefit Egypt will come from the sweat & blood of its people.
Z is correct regarding the unholy alliance against Assad, but it has nothing to do with the sake of Syrian people. It serves the ultimate goal of dismantling anti-Israel factions before summer strike on Iran.
I agree with Ahmed Sarhan except for one thing. The deal began long before the arrest of the Americans. I remember you wrote a post weeks ago about SCAF fighting US Senators over the military aid. At that time, the deal was done. It was not a gamble at all. US knew about this whole situation and approved it. Furthermore, Muslim Brotherhood at least knew about the deal in an early stage. SCAF would not have risked a move from the parliament against their plan.
ReplyDeleteEgypt needs and should take economic assistance. The mismanagement of the Mubarak years & the disruption of the Uprising has , unfortunately, makes the current situation very precarious.
ReplyDeleteDespite Egypts enormous attractions as a tourist destination, realistically, revenues will be down in the short-term, at the worst possible time.
My opinion is that,as the most important of the countries to undergo a political convulsion. It would be farsighted move by others to bolster immediately the Egyptian economy, not to take over, not to dictate terms. Its in no-ones interest that conditions become too hopeless, in a pivotal country with such potential. It would be a mistake not to offer help. It would be a mistake not to take it.
I agree with AnonymousMar 4, 2012 05:48 PM.
ReplyDelete50 billion is no pocket change and it's way too much money to release a few US citizens.
The source of this news is a fabrication, however, the $330,000 bail money paid to free each 'hostage' must have lined someone's pocket and it's well known that in Egypt 'If you grease, you slide'.