RIYADH: Saudi King Abdullah has expressed his support for embattled President Hosni Mubarak and slammed those “tampering” with Egypt’s security and stability, state news agency SPA reported on Saturday.
The Saudi ruler, in Morocco recovering from back surgery performed in the United States, telephoned Mubarak early Saturday, the report said.
During the conversation, Abdullah condemned “intruders” he said were “tampering with Egypt’s security and stability … in the name of freedom of expression.”
Saudi Arabia, he added, “stands with all its means with the government and people of Egypt.”
SPA said Mubarak had responded by assuring King Abdullah that “the situation is stable (in Egypt) … and what the world has seen is nothing more than an attempt by some … suspicious groups which do not want stability and security for Egyptians.”
“No Arab or Muslim can tolerate any meddling in the security and stability of Arab and Muslim Egypt by those who infiltrated the people in the name of freedom of expression, exploiting it to inject their destructive hatred,” SPA quoted King Abdullah as saying.
Thousands of anti-regime demonstrators poured onto Cairo’s streets again Saturday as massive protests against the rule of Mubarak raged into a fifth straight day.
The 82-year-old Egyptian leader in a television address early Saturday said he would replace his cabinet and vowed economic and political reforms in the world’s most populous Arab nation, but showed no sign of easing his decades-old grip on power.
