Economic expert: 5 reasons why the Gulf stopped funding Al-Sisi

An Egyptian economic expert said that five reasons caused the friends of Egypt conference to fail and made the Gulf States reluctant to provide more loans and grants to President Abdel Fatah Al- Sisi despite his victory in the presidential election.

Nasser Banhawy said the coup regime is falling apart and these countries fear that its failure will lead to losing their funds; especially as the pro-legitimacy alliance announced several times that it does not recognise any loans or contracts provided to the coup regime.

Banhawy pointed out that these countries fear the escalating anger of their people from funding the Egyptian killing machine despite the widespread poverty and unemployment in their countries. He said that the unemployment rate among Saudi males stands at six per cent and at 33 per cent among females and that these countries fear that the Arab Spring will spread to their countries while they try to fight it in Egypt.

Among the other reasons, Banhawy explained the countries fear losing previous grants, estimated to value $20 billion, due to corruption, lack of control, lack of planning and vision for economic development. He said: “These fears are also due to Al-Sisi’s failure to fight corruption which devours tens of billions annually and his turning a blind eye to tax evasion and his lack of seriousness in imposing a maximum salary law for judges and employees in the fields of energy, army and the police.”

Banhawy pointed out that the salaries of these sectors’ employees exceed their counterparts in the Gulf States which support the coup and noted that a large segment of the Gulf people believe it is foolish that their states grant free gas shipments to support a military regime which sold gas to Israel at subsidised prices.

He concluded that these countries’ preoccupation with supporting Libya’s renegade General Khalifa Haftar, fighting the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and monitoring the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)’s advancement in Iraq have interrupted their plans which compelled Al-Sisi to demand more loans from the International Monetary Fund to finance the state militarisation, including building new prisons, increasing the army Generals’ salaries and financing new arms deals.