Middle East Economic Survey

VOL. XLVII

No 30

26-July-2004

AID

US House Votes To Block Aid To Saudi Arabia

The Republican-led US House of Representatives on 15 July voted by 217 to 191 to remove $25,000 earmarked for Saudi Arabia from the $19.4bn foreign aid bill for 2005. The vote was a defeat for US President George W Bush, who had strongly opposed the measure to remove the Saudi aid allocation. While the amount of aid designated for military training is insignificant (especially compared to the...