Gulf aid THE CENTRAL Bank of Egypt (CBE) this week received $5 billion in aid from Arab Gulf states, pushing the country's foreign reserves to $20 billion compared to $14.92 billion in June. The sum includes $3 billion from the UAE and $2 billion in aid from Saudi Arabia. The two Gulf countries, together with Kuwait, have pledged to send Egypt aid packages including interest-free deposits, grants and oil shipments. The Gulf aid has poured in after the fall of the Mohamed Morsi regime, which was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood that has been criticised by all three Gulf states. Last week, the UAE pledged $1 billion as a grant to Egypt and $2 billion in the form of an interest-free deposit at the CBE. The Saudi Arabian package takes the form of a five-year interest-free deposit of $2 billion at the CBE and is part of a larger $5 billion package including energy products. The $4 billion that has been promised by Kuwait, including $1 billion in oil products, has not yet been sent. EU cancels aid CITING a “lack of clear vision” for the country's economic outlook, the European Union (EU) is cancelling a previously scheduled five billion euro aid package to Egypt. The sum includes a series of grants and loans from the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. James Moran, EU ambassador to Egypt, said in a press conference last week that the EU might also withdraw its 500 million euro non-refundable annual cash grant to Egypt if the country's political and economic situation did not stabilise. The move comes a few days after EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton visited Cairo where she met with the interim president, members of the cabinet and members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Turks avoid ports SOME Turkish exporters have decided to change the maritime routes they use for shipments so that they do not use Egyptian ports, according to sources in the Egyptian maritime sector. The move comes as officials in Turkey have openly expressed their reservations about the ousting of former president Morsi and the fall of his Muslim Brotherhood-backed government, an ally of the Turkish ruling Islamist-leaning Justice and Development Party. Meanwhile, members of the Egyptian-Turkish Business Association held a press conference earlier this week in which they said that business relations between the two countries would not be affected by political disagreements. During Morsi's one year in office, Turkey provided Egypt $2 billion in loans. Al-Jazeera replies AL-JAZEERA has accused the Egyptian authorities of a sustained campaign of intimidation against its staff, rejecting charges of pro-Islamist bias in its reporting on the crisis in Egypt. Hours after Egypt's military ousted Morsi as president on 3 July, security forces raided the Cairo offices of Al-Jazeera's Egyptian news channel, which military sources accused at the time of broadcasting “incitement”. Based in Qatar, a Gulf state viewed as sympathetic to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Jazeera has been criticised by many Egyptians for its perceived bias in covering their country. Al-Jazeera said Egypt had been “tightening its grip on the freedom of Al-Jazeera's staff” for the past three weeks. Egyptian authorities were not immediately available for comment in Cairo where it was a national holiday. Al-Jazeera said in a statement that the authorities had filed a lawsuit saying it had stolen two transmission feeds from state television and used them to broadcast protests at a square where Morsi supporters had been camped since he was ousted. The television station also said its staff were being prevented from covering official news conferences and were receiving numerous threats. “There is no truth to what is being published in this campaign about Al-Jazeera's bias towards one side in the current political equation. These are accusations with no proof,” the statement said.
