King Of Saudia Arabia Pledges $41.5 Million To Rebuild Lebanon
Svjetlana Mlinarevic - All Headline News Contributor Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (BANG) - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has pledged to donate $1.5 billion to help Lebanon. The monarch announced his support for the Middle Eastern country - which has come under Israeli military attack following Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers - on state television July 25. He promised to give $500 million to help reconstruct the devastated areas and pledged to deposit another $1 billion in Lebanon's central bank to support the economy. The senior royal, who has held talks with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, also warned the continuing Israeli offensive may result in a full-scale war. He said, "If the option of peace fails as a result of Israeli arrogance, then the only option remaining will be war, and God alone knows what the region would witness in a conflict that would spare no one. It must be said that patience can't last forever, and if the brutal Israeli military continues to kill and destroy, no one can foresee what may happen." Over 300 Lebanese civilians have been killed since the strikes began two weeks and experts estimate the financial damage to the country's economy to be around $2 billion. While Saudi Arabia and Egypt have called for Israeli to halt their offensive, they have also blamed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah for provoking the fighting.
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