EGYPT: KING KHALID OF SAUDI ARABIA ENDS OFFICIAL VISIT WITH PLEDGE OF SIX HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR LOAN.

Record ID: 189587

  • Title: EGYPT: KING KHALID OF SAUDI ARABIA ENDS OFFICIAL VISIT WITH PLEDGE OF SIX HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR LOAN.
  • Date: 21st July 1975
  • Summary: 1. GV Airport building in Cairo 0.03 2. SV King Khalid & President Sadat arriving by car 0.11 3. SV Guard of honour 0.24 4. SV Khalid and Sadat out of car and onto red carpet 0.30 5. LV Khalid & Sadat walk over to great officials 0.46 6. SV PAN FROM Guard of honour TO Khalid receiving gift 1.04 7. SV PAN Jets flying overhead 1.10 8. SV Khalid and party at aircraft steps 1.23 9. SCU Guard of honour 1.26 10. GV Khalid up aircraft steps and turns at top 1.36 11. SV ???'Plane taxiing PAN TO guard of honour 1.46 12. GV PAN 'Plane takes off 1.58 Initials BB/1530 NPJ & TH/JB/BB/1620 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 5th August 1975 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CAIRO, EGYPT
  • Country: Egypt
  • Reuters ID: LVA2HOSFY44WYI1JNS379BWUU9L
  • Story Text: King Khalid of Saudi Arabia flew home Cairo airport on Sunday (20 July) at the end of his five-day official visit to Egypt. Before leaving Egypt the King announced that he had pledged a new 600-million dollars (250 m. pounds sterling) loan to Egypt, and had given his support to President Sadat's decision not to renew the United Nation's peace-keeping mandate in Sinai. He is also believed to have given secret pledges of continued financial support to strength Egypt's armed forces.

    Although Saudi Arabia is the principal financier of the Arab war effort against Israel, the amount it provides to the front-line countries -- chiefly Egypt -- has never been disclosed. The new 600 million dollar loan was revealed in a joint communique, and it will consist mainly of credit facilities to Egypt's Central Bank aimed at consolidating the strained Egyptian economy. King Khalid also agreed to contribute an undisclosed sum to a public housing project in the Cairo industrial suburb of Helwan.

    The joint communique said that the King and the President had reached "complete understanding in their talks". It also said that King Khalid supported the Egyptian action over the U.N.'s peace-keeping mandate "because of Israel's stalling and its clear determination not to respond to all genuine Arab efforts to achieve peace in the area".

    One of the most important of those efforts, said the communique, was President Sadat's decision to reopen the Suez Canal on 5 June -- eight years to the day after it was closed by 1967 Middle East war.

    This unqualified support for President Sadat has strengthened the President's hand in dealing with the United Nations and the United States, which he is urging to put pressure on israel.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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