Kuwait offers Egypt $4B aid, fuel package

KUWAIT CITY — Kuwait says it will offer Egypt an aid package worth $4 billion, becoming the latest Gulf state to send a financial lifeline to the new government in Cairo following a coup there.

Kuwait’s announcement Wednesday follows a total of $8 billion in grants, loans and badly needed fuel offered from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both are strong critics of ousted President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

But Kuwait has closer ties with the Brotherhood, whose allies have a powerful political faction in the Gulf nation.

The official Kuwait News Agency quotes the minister of cabinet affairs, Mohammad Al Sabah, as saying Egypt will receive a $2 billion loan, a $1 billion grant and $1 billion worth of oil and petroleum products.