Saturday, January 14, 2012

Moussa denies receiving Saudi funds for presidential campaign



Al-Masry Al-Youm

"Former Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa denied receiving funds from Saudi Arabia for his election campaign, in an interview with London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper Friday.

When the newspaper asked Moussa about repeated charges that he has received funding ― offering a figure somewhere between LE50 million and US$50 million ― from the Gulf kingdom to support his presidential bid, Moussa responded, “This did not happen and will never happen.”

“I call on those who say and write such things to comply with God, because this is not true,” he said. “Riyadh stands at an equal distance from all the presidential candidates and political forces in Egypt.”[What a blatant lie!]

Privately owned Al-Mesryoon newspaper reported last May that Saudi Arabia had allocated a US$5 million reward to Moussa for his service as Arab League secretary general. Some activists on online social networks like Facebook and Twitter consider the reward to have been support for Moussa's presidential campaign.

Saudi Arabia was one of the primary supporters of the ousted regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, with which Moussa is often accused of being affiliated. The kingdom announced its full support for Mubarak during the 25 January uprising last year that eventually brought down the regime.

News reports surfacing in April said that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were threatening to fire Egyptian laborers and withdraw their investments from Egypt if Mubarak were put on trial....."

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