Saudi Arabia has stopped all medical treatment programs in Canada and is coordinating for the transfer of all Saudi patients from Canadian hospitals to other hospitals outside Canada, Saudi press agency said early on Wednesday.

The agency cited Saudi Health Attaché in the United States of America and Canada Dr. Fahd bin Ibrahim Al Tamimi.

Saudi Arabia froze new trade and investment with Canada and expelled the Canadian ambassador, early on Monday, in a stern gesture of retaliation after Ottawa urged it to free arrested civil society activists.

For its part, Egypt said on Tuesday it supported Saudi Arabia in its political row with Canada, and stood in “solidarity” with the Gulf Arab kingdom against “foreign interference” in its domestic affairs.

Cairo’s foreign ministry said on its Facebook page that it was “concerned by the crisis between Saudi Arabia and Canada, which is a result of the negative tendency by some international … sides of meddling in the internal affairs of countries in the region,” without elaborating.

Source: Agencies