World

Saudi king expresses support for Egyptian president

No Arab or Muslim can tolerate any meddling in security and stability of Arab and Muslim Egypt, says King Abdullah.

Afp January 29, 2011

RIYADH:

Saudi King Abdullah has expressed his support for embattled President Hosni Mubarak and slammed those "tampering" with Egypt's security and stability, state news agency SPA reported on Saturday.

The Saudi ruler, in Morocco recovering from back surgery performed in the United States, telephoned Mubarak early Saturday, the report said.

During the conversation, Abdullah condemned "intruders" he said were "tampering with Egypt's security and stability ... in the name of freedom of expression."

Saudi Arabia, he added, "stands with all its means with the government and people of Egypt."

SPA said Mubarak had responded by assuring King Abdullah that "the situation is stable (in Egypt) ... and what the world has seen is nothing more than an attempt by some ... suspicious groups which do not want stability and security for Egyptians."

"No Arab or Muslim can tolerate any meddling in the security and stability of Arab and Muslim Egypt by those who infiltrated the people in the name of freedom of expression, exploiting it to inject their destructive hatred," SPA quoted King Abdullah as saying.

Thousands of anti-regime demonstrators poured onto Cairo's streets again Saturday as massive protests against the rule of Mubarak raged into a fifth straight day.

The 82-year-old Egyptian leader in a television address early Saturday said he would replace his cabinet and vowed economic and political reforms in the world's most populous Arab nation, but showed no sign of easing his decades-old grip on power.

COMMENTS (23)

Swiss Banker | 13 years ago | Reply It is said that even a leaf on a tree will not move unless given Allah's permission? 'A million men march' is surely God's will, then ? Let us please welcome Mubarak to the Arabia. Thank you King, for welcoming Mubarak & company.

Realist | 13 years ago | Reply If Mubarak had taken care of his country like the House of Saud has, he would not be facing this today. Egyptians got fed up with police brutality and Government inability to solve unemployment, out of control inflation and other economic and social problems. Saying that they are going through all that only for an idiotic system called democracy (hey we have Zardari as president due to democracy) is oversimplifying the issue. Since House of Saud and most of other Arab monarchies have actually taken care of their own lands as good rulers providing their people with necessities and keeping them happy, nothing like Egypt or Tunisia is going to happen there. King Abdullah should be able to see that Mubarak's incompetence brought this upon himself.

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zain | 13 years ago | Reply The day Saudi Arabia goes through a revolution, will be the day to see. Hopefully be the end of Wahabiism. But I want Pakistan to revolt against all current leaders and start a peoples movement.

ali | 13 years ago | Reply i am mush worried about Kinkgdom. same can happen there too.

A Chatterji | 13 years ago | Reply All these dictators should be sent to Guantanamo Bay !!

Nadia | 13 years ago | Reply one crook supporting another - spit on them

Jawad BT | 13 years ago | Reply We respect all the Arabs as they are our brothers and sisters but as Mohamamed (Peace be Upon Him) never liked the Kings or Dictators and made sure all of his followers were humble,down to earth and loving..so should we.. Religion is not part of investment of any country, person or Family and it should not be taken as ones Property for people go there for peace and harmony.. I don't see why people in the last one century have just lost there faith and have forgotten the values of common people.. I hope this Revolution is not turned down by the Capitalists of the World.. There will be no king no Dictator No Rich Landlord or Businessman the world is going to be a normal place for normal people to live in.

Nadeem Ahmed | 13 years ago | Reply Thanks to Saudi King, for his blunt but very true statement. In this chaos, we hear few voices of wisdom and Saudi Monarch is one of them. Recent events in Egypt and other Arab countries will bring only bloodshed and destruction. Nothing good will come out of it. Those so called revolutionaries and blood thirsty vultures have one plan only and that is destruction of everything they come accross.. These crowds of unruley mobs are not sparing their own centuries old assets. After everything is destroyed and no positive change will come out of it, these intruders and so called revolutionaries will be declared enemy agents by same people who are praising them now. Save you precious words of wisdom for that day.

imran | 13 years ago | Reply We have great respect for King Abdullah, however he should not side with a tyrant

khurram kaleem | 13 years ago | Reply from tunisia to egypt .....one day to saudi arabia .Only freedom of the arab ppl will awaken muslim interest.

Hussain | 13 years ago | Reply Apparently,it seems a revolutionary situations in Tunisia and Egypt but none of us know about the originator and central ideology behind all this uprising.When we talk about revolutions,Russian revolution, European industrial revolution and China's socialist revolution, which have taken place on the map of the world.But there is none of them remained survive in the history. With the passage of time these were merged with different forms of ideologies and lost their origination. Among them,only one which is still surviving and flourishing along with ideology. This is because it had an originator ,Khomeini,along with a robust ideology who at every step supervised the then demonstrators against the evil stem King Raza Pahlavi,who was then a superpower among the kings of the Muslim world,and proceed their agitation till king's flee and overcome the state. In the whole process of uprising Agha Khomeini backed the agitators with physically and mentally (a revolutionary ideology).In this scenario if we analyze about the present turmoil and increasingly uprising in the Arab world it doesn't seem under a uniform leadership.Here it is perceived that a foreign power involve behind the clashes.|But it is also a susceptible indication where prior the uprising USA had been entirely backing up the exile leader of Tunisia for 23 yrs but a day what happened with America where she states about freedom of expression in Egypt and Tunisia.At the same time Saudi Arabia categorically offered every form of support for Hosni Mubarak to perpetuate his kingdom in the Egypt.At result in the near future the whole Arab will plunge into a deep political crisis.Rather it would be Arab's wisdom if they,at this juncture,gave respect of their opinion and justice.

supporter | 13 years ago | Reply soon the wave of reform will knock his door and then no where to hide or flee . dictators free world

Anonymous | 13 years ago | Reply The Kingdom is fast becoming the "Last resort of despots" who have looted their people.

Jeddy | 13 years ago | Reply Egyptians are suffering rising prices and unemployment. Autocrats do not address issues. It is surprising that Egypt has a tremendous tourism industry, income from the Suez Canal. None of that wealth goes to help the Egyptian people. Where does that money go. Suddenly after the uprising, everyone in the West was worried about the price of oil. It is in the interest of the USA that the Suez Canal should not be a property of Egypt but be the property of the West.

Vidyut | 13 years ago | Reply Obviously. He would not like this to become a trend where people question their rulers. Skeletons in a closet would do this to the most secure monarch.

Amer | 13 years ago | Reply The King is on the wrong side of history! The Egyptian people have already said holding many banners and the like that Mubarak should go to Saudi Arabia if he likes but they won't tolerate him as President anymore.

Asif Iqbal | 13 years ago | Reply With money collected from Haj (more than oil), the Saudi monarchy interferes in Pakistan's internal affairs creating sectarian disharmony and ignominious killings of innocent people in the name of 'jihad'. No wonder it is upset at the toppling of a brother dictator.

Noor Lodi | 13 years ago | Reply LOL. Of course what are you going to expect from these 2-penny dictators. Also since when is his 'Saudi' Arabia? I thought it was 'Mohammeds' Arabia. But royal family has an exit plan. Most money over seas. Palaces around the world and several lavish private jets and 747's to take them out of the country at a moments notice. We should buy oil future!

Aftab Kenneth Wilson | 13 years ago | Reply The Kingdom in fact loves all dictators and as such gives them life time security with all perks. They always loved our dictators which all know but one was exception due to his wish to become "Ameer ul Momineen" and as such had to sign a 10 year agreement not to poke his nose in politics. Now the unrest which our country is facing on all fronts be it terrorism, finance and governance are result of the policies which these brothers and party is adopting. They look democrats but things are other way around. Why the Kingdom always do this needs to be looked into depth? Anyhow they have lot of highest level stakes in Egypt which can also affect their own system of governance.

Jawad BT | 13 years ago | Reply Brother the Word REVOLUTION is not just 10 Letters..There's going to be a Lot of Blood, And only Capitalists left to drink it..

Ashutosh | 13 years ago | Reply This will be the faith of all the autocratic states. Revolutions are often painful and causes disproportionate misery to common people. All non-democratic states should slowly transform to vibrant democracies though political reforms.

Jawad BT | 13 years ago | Reply Saudi Arabia's stock exchange tumbled by over 4 percent and "The fall is due to sentiment about what's happening in Egypt, and also in the US because the Dow went down" said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Riyadh-based Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole Group. So what do you think the King was not Happy About.. And Plus Without Egypt's Mubarak and with relations with Turkey in shambles, Israel will be forced to court new potential allies.. So the land of Mose's is yet to see another Big Battle..

Eeman | 13 years ago | Reply Birds of same feather flock together.

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