Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 
Saudi Arabia Supports Egypt Financially,
Turkey Says Israel Was Behind the Military Coup

Saudis pledge to help Egypt if foreign aid cut

Mehdi Chebil

By FRANCE 24 (text), August 20, 2013 

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia said on Monday that Arab and Islamic countries would intervene to help Egypt if Western countries cut aid packages in response to the army-led government’s deadly crackdowns on Islamist protesters.

“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,” Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said, according to the Saudi state news agency, SPA.

The United States and the European Union have strongly criticized the crackdowns in the past week, in which close to 800 people died and thousands more were injured.

Earlier, Germany's development minister, Dirk Niebel, said that Egypt will get “no further pledges this year” of aid from Berlin, and added he has decided “that we won't negotiate this year” on any debt relief for the country.

Last week, Denmark also said that it was cutting 4 million euros in development projects with the government.

However, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt announced that his country’s aid to Egypt consisted “primarily of support to human rights and women’s organizations,” and therefore it was “not so wise” to cut funds.

The United States, meanwhile, Egypt's main aid donor, has said that its $1.3 billion-per-year aid programme would continue, but would be under constant review.

Allies and rivals

Monday’s defiant statement by Prince Saud’s stood in contrast to the low-keyed and cooperative spirit the foreign minister displayed during his visit to France over the weekend.

At a joint press conference with Saud, French President François Hollande said it was the “common responsibility of Arab countries, Europe, and France to help end the violence,” in Egypt.

“I think that Saudi Arabia and France can contribute to making sure [Egypt] returns to peaceful process,” Hollande added.

While Saudi Arabia and Jordan have come out in support  of the interim government in its fight against Islamists, other regional neighbours have harshly criticised it.

Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers have gone so far as to call the army's August 14 assault on Islamist protesters in Cairo a “massacre”.

Turkey's Erdogan claims Israel behind Morsi ouster

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Israel was behind the July ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, citing comments made in 2011 by an Israeli justice minister at a forum France.

By Hürriyet Daily News (text), August 20, 2013  

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has claimed that Israel was behind the July 3 military coup in Egypt, adding that Ankara has evidence as to the country’s involvement in former president Mohammed Morsi’s overthrow.

“Now the West starts to say democracy is not the ballot box or not only the box but we know that the ballot box is the people’s will,” Erdoğan said Aug. 20 at an expanded meeting of the provincial chairs of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

"We have the evidence," he said, citing what he said were comments by an Israeli justice minister to a 2011 forum in France in which he allegedly said Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood would not be able to remain in power even if it won elections.

The prime minister criticized Western countries' stance vis-à-vis Egypt’s coup, saying, "The West should [understand] the description of democracy, they need to learn it.”

Turkey analyses regional impacts of Morsi's ouster

Hurriyet Daily News/AFP, July 4, 2013

Turkey has begun evaluating the fallout of the Egyptian army's ouster of democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi on the region, with particular focus on how developments could impact on the ongoing civil war in neighbouring Syria.

By Hürriyet Daily News (text)  

Turkey has begun to evaluate the potential impacts of the Egyptian army’s overthrow of democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi on the region, with an emphasis on how the development could affect the ongoing internal fight in neighboring Syria.  

“The Egyptian army’s intervention will have serious impacts on the region and on the course of the Arab Spring. But it’s very hard to estimate how the impact will show itself,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told the Hürriyet Daily News in an initial evaluation.

 “Syria will surely be affected as well, but it’s really hard to say how things will change in the field form now on.”   Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and Deputy Undersecretary Ömer Önhon spent the night at the ministry yesterday and were in constant touch with Turkish Ambassador to Cairo Hüseyin Avni Botsalı.  

Botsalı’s mandate as the ambassador ended on June 30, but the government asked him to stay a few days more to observe the developments in the country before he was scheduled to move to his new posting, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the meantime, President Abdullah Gül is set to receive Turkey’s new ambassador to Egypt, Ahmet Yıldız, in Istanbul this afternoon.

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