Saudi Arabia Pledges To Support Egyptian Military

Saudi Arabia has pledged to support the Egyptian military and the removal of Mohamed Mosri and the Muslim Brotherhood. Will this help bring peace to the east?

By: Andrew Montgomery, Staff Writer

Image courtesy of oxfamnovib

Saudi Arabia has pledged its support for the Egyptian military and the removal of Mohamed Mosri and the Muslim Brotherhood. On the surface, Saudi Arabia’s backing of Egypt’s ideologically secular military leadership would appear to contradict the hyper-conservative brand of Wahhabi Islam that Saudi Arabia so famously purports.

However, the Muslim Brotherhood is not viewed by the Saudi Arabian monarch as a political group spreading a more moral and conservative Islam, but rather an extremist terror group that could potentially further destabilize the region.

The Saudis have pledged $12 billion to the Egyptian military, sealing the fate of Mosri and his band of puritanical brothers.

This greatly undermines the United States attempts to mediate between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian Military. Just this week, the CIA admitted to a large role in the 1953 coup d’état of former democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohamed Mosaddegh.

Many Egyptian protestors have already accused the U.S. of butting their head in where it doesn’t belong, so the timing of the CIA’s admission of guilt probably couldn’t have been worse. The United States has a long history of propping up foreign governments that they find most beneficial, and with these recent admissions, you can be sure this is fresh in the minds of the Egyptian people.

These developments must make most casual observers scratch their heads in confusion. Why is Saudi Arabia supporting a secular military dictatorship while the U.S. supports an Islamic group that is apparently even too extreme for Saudi?

Leaders in Washington are already discussing cutting off financial aid to Egypt in response to the Military aggression toward supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood, so what we are hearing isn’t anti-war rhetoric or political grandstanding. It’s obvious that Saudi Arabia and the United States have vested interested in Egypt, we’ll have to see how this unfolds.

Andrew Montgomery is a very disgruntled 4^th year student at Ryerson University majoring in Computer Science. In his spare time he enjoys a good fight, wearing his custom made monocle and top hat, and the occasional cup of strong English tea served with a delightful strawberry crumpet.

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