Local Editor
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have just written another check to bail out their latest troubled ally.
The Gulf nations on Sunday pledged $3 billion to Sudan after longtime President Omar al-Bashir was toppled this month. In a statement, they said they’ll deposit $500 million in Sudan’s central bank to ease pressure on the currency. The remainder will go toward food, medicine and fuel.
It’s the latest in a string of pledges as the two nations seek to maintain their political influence and prop up allies in the Middle East and beyond, even as lower oil prices weigh on their own economies. Over the past two years, they’ve promised aid to countries including Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Pakistan.
Reasons for the support vary. The two nations, along with Kuwait, signed off on a bailout package for Bahrain to avert a currency devaluation that could have harmed the riyal. Jordan was teetering on the brink of an economic crisis that threatened the stability of a fellow Sunni Arab monarchy.
Sudan is one of the leading contributors of troops to the Saudi-led war in Yemen, where the kingdom and the U.A.E. are fighting the Houthi Ansarullah revolutionaries.
The Saudi aggression has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions of others. It has also caused the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
