Ah, the Saudi Press. That bastion of free thought, expression, and objectivity. Yes, the Saudis' generosity is welcome. Any help from anyone is welcome. But Asharq Alawsat cannot possibly print statements like those above and expect anyone to unquestioningly swallow them whole.In the last two years Saudi Arabia has giving over 2,875 million dollars for the reconstruction of the Lebanese regions after the July war. One thousand million dollars of this money was deposited in the Central bank and another 1,000 million dollars was the amount of money that Saudi Arabia had pledged to give, at the Paris 3 Conference. The latest Saudi aid to Lebanon was 44 million dollars to meet the needs of the current academic year.
This is the Saudi aid to Lebanon. It is clear, open, with defined objectives. It does not give anyone the opportunity to speculate and claim that the Saudi aid is meant for just one region of the country and not the rest of it.
Out of 2.875 billion dollars, 1 billion was deposited in the Central bank. Fine. Another 1 billion was pledged at the Paris 3 conference. Fine. The latest Saudi aid to Lebanon was 44 million dollars. Fine.
That adds up to 1.044 billion actually given to Lebanon. So where did the other 1.831 billion go? To me, and correct me if I'm out of line, that sounds anything but "clear, open," and "with defined objectives." It sounds markedly unclear, closed, and with very vague objectives.
Saudi Arabia is rich. We get it. And it likes to help its Arab neighbors. It's very noble, generous, etc. But please, please do not insult our intelligence, Mr. Diyab, by claiming that anything Saudi Arabia does, including its philanthropic pet projects, is done in a transparent, clear, open, or even close to approaching unbiased manner. And when you do wish to insult our intelligence by making such a claim, at least have the decency to back up your comments with numbers that add up.
Oh, and in case you didn't know, there is a word for 'a thousand million'. It's called "billion".
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