Saudi Arabia is using Canada to send a message, analysts say

[PeaceGen]

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/f...da-send-message-analysts-180808203344288.html

Saudi Arabia is using Canada to send a message, analysts say
MBS unlikely to back down, experts say, as Saudi students, medical patients ordered to leave Canada amid diplomatic row.

by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
10 hours ago

Some analysts say the root cause of the diplomatic crisis with Canada is Mohammed bin Salman himself [Bander Algaloud/Saudi Royal Palace/AFP]
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Montreal, Canada - Saudi Arabia's decision to expel Canada's ambassador, recall thousands of students studying in the North American country, and suspend future trade with Ottawa took many off guard this week.

Saudi authorities pointed to a series of tweets, in which Canada's foreign affairs ministry called for the release of jailed Saudi human rights activists, as the reason for the ongoing diplomatic flare-up.

But experts say the spat is not about the statements, but rather, it's the latest attempt by Riyadh to warn other countries of the consequences of speaking out against the kingdom's human rights record.

"It's pretty clear that [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman] is using Canada to send a message to the rest of the world that if you want to trade with Saudi Arabia, then you need to shut up on human rights," said Nader Hashemi, director of the University of Denver's Center for Middle East Studies at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies.

Hashemi said the root cause of the diplomatic crisis with Canada is bin Salman himself.

The crown prince, commonly referred to as MBS, "is drunk on power and arrogant and suffers from a deep dose of youthful naivete and believes that he has [US President] Donald Trump in his back pocket and can do whatever he wants", Hashemi told Al Jazeera.

Since coming to power in 2015, MBS has sought to be portrayed as a reformist at home, while at the same time instituting more aggressive policies abroad.

He has been accused of being the "architect" of the devastating war in Yemen that has led to a humanitarian crisis, enforced a blockade on Qatar, arrested dozens of members of the Saudi royal family, and confined and reportedly forced Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign.

The conflict with Canada is bin Salman's way of establishing new rules for how countries deal with Saudi Arabia, Hashemi said.

"MBS has drawn a line in the sand."

'Spark that lit the fire'
On Monday, Saudi Arabia accused Canada of "blatant interference" in the country's affairs, after Chrystia Freeland, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, called for the "immediate release" of jailed Saudi human rights activist Samar Badawi and others.

OPINION

Putting the spat between Saudi Arabia and Canada in context

by Bill Law
Badawi's brother, blogger Raif Badawi, is also jailed in Saudi Arabia. His wife and children live in the Canadian province of Quebec, and they were recently granted Canadian citizenship.

"It is a major, unacceptable affront to the Kingdom's laws and judicial process, as well as a violation of the Kingdom's sovereignty," the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

"The Kingdom views the Canadian position as an affront to the Kingdom that requires a sharp response to prevent any party from attempting to meddle with Saudi sovereignty."

However, Canada's comments were not particularly out of the ordinary, said Thomas Juneau, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa who specialises in Middle East politics.

Instead, the tweets should be seen as "the spark that lit the fire" on already simmering Saudi frustration with Canada, Juneau told Al Jazeera.

That's due in large part to the debate around an $11bn ($15bn Canadian) weapons deal with the Saudis, which, though conceived and approved by his predecessor, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government quietly signed off on in 2016.

Trudeau has been forced to defend the agreement ever since, amid unrelenting questions from Canadian human rights groups and media about how the Saudi authorities plan to use the light-armoured vehicles (LAVs) Canada will supply.

For the Saudis, that negative coverage - and the Canadian government not forcefully coming to their defence - caused "building frustration and irritation" over the last two years, Juneau said.

"They were hoping for the Canadian government to take a much more proactive approach to defend and promote relations with Saudi Arabia, which absolutely did not happen," he said.

"Saudi-Canadian relations were not rosy and shiny as of last week."

Saudis reject mediation
Saudi Arabia has also given Saudi students studying in Canada one month to leave the country, promising to place them in other schools abroad or in Saudi Arabia.

"I would like to reassure our students in Canada that your government is keen on your study future," said Ahmed Al-Eissa, the Saudi minister of education, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

A total of 11,650 Saudi students were enrolled in long-term study programmes in Canada in 2015, according to a report prepared for Canada's foreign affairs ministry. Another 5,622 short-term Saudi students were in Canada that same year.

READ MORE
Saudi Arabia halts all medical treatment for citizens in Canada
Saudi Arabia recalled its own representative in Ottawa, suspended future trade with Canada, and Saudi health officials also announced they plan to transfer all Saudi medical patients in Canadian hospitals to other medical facilities outside the country.

The Saudi government has also set up "operations rooms" in Ottawa and Riyadh to support its citizens in Canada, it said.

Reuters news agency reported that Canada was seeking mediation through the United Arab Emirates and the UK, but Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir publicly rejected any such effort.

"There is nothing to mediate. A mistake has been made and a mistake should be corrected," al-Jubeir told reporters in Riyadh, the news agency reported.

On Wednesday afternoon, Trudeau said Canada's foreign minister had long discussions with her Saudi counterpart this week, and "diplomatic talks continue".

Canada has always sought to build relations with countries, while keeping the ability to raise human rights concerns when they arise - and that's been Ottawa's approach with Saudi Arabia, as well, Trudeau said.

"We will do so in a constructive and polite way, but we will also remain firm on standing up for human rights everywhere around the world," he told reporters during a press conference in Montreal.

Crisis not likely to end soon
Also on Wednesday, the Saudi embassy in Canada tweeted that the government "is looking at implementing additional measures against Canada", but it did not elaborate further.



KSA Embassy in Canada - السفارة في كندا

✔@KSAembassyCA
https://twitter.com/KSAembassyCA/status/1027191790628229121

#Riyadh | FM @AdelAljubeir: The issue between #SaudiArabia and #Canada has been imposed on us by a blatant and unacceptable interference by Canada in the internal affairs of the Kingdom

3:56 PM - Aug 8, 2018

• 
  4
• 
  See KSA Embassy in Canada - السفارة في كندا's other Tweets

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In a statement earlier in the week, Freeland said "Canada will always stand up for the protection of human rights, including women's rights and freedom of expression around the world".

"We will never hesitate to promote these values and we believe that this dialogue is critical to international diplomacy," she said.

How Canada will handle the dispute going forward remains unclear, said Juneau at the University of Ottawa, though he said he would be surprised to see bin Salman deescalate the situation any time soon.

READ MORE
Saudi Arabia expels Canadian ambassador over criticism of arrests
"I'm not optimistic that things will change soon, simply because MBS has been so not willing to walk back from his assertive gestures, whether it's Yemen, or Qatar, or others," Juneau said.

That was echoed by Hashemi, who said it will only be resolved if Canada or Saudi Arabia backs down, which appears unlikely.

"If Canada backs down, then it's no longer the liberal democracy that it claims to be", he said.

Federal elections are also taking place in Canada next year, which may push Trudeau to adopt whatever stance vis-a-vis the Saudis that appeals to the most Canadian voters.

For his part, MBS has a lot invested in the situation already, Hashemi said, and he hopes "he can prevail here so that other countries will think twice before they criticise his policies".

Future of the weapons deal unclear
The future of the $11bn weapons deal also remains uncertain, said Cesar Jaramillo, executive director of Project Ploughshares, a Canadian anti-war group that has been one of the most vocal critics of the weapons deal.

Global Affairs Canada did not respond to Al Jazeera's request for comment on whether the agreement would go ahead despite the diplomatic dispute.

READ MORE
Uncertainty shrouds Canadian arms sales to Saudi Arabia
While Jaramillo said he welcomed the government raising concerns about the jailing of Saudi human rights activists, the more relevant concerns around the deal relate to the likelihood the weapons will be misused.

To date, he said Ottawa has largely given Saudi Arabia a pass on human rights violations in order to go ahead with the transfer, and it would be ironic if Saudi Arabia were to cancel the deal now.

"Canada has bent over backwards over years and assumed what we consider to be a no-matter-what attitude," Jaramillo told Al Jazeera.

Whatever happens, Jaramillo said it would be an "indefensible" reflection of "policy incoherence" for Canada to stick with the agreement in the face of the Saudi government's recent statements and actions.

"It would detract from and undermine Canada's purported firm stance around human rights in Saudi Arabia," he said.

"You can't take a firm stand on human rights, and on the side [say], 'but can we please keep the deal, pretty please?' It can't work that way."

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/08/middleeast/saudi-canada-diplomatic-feud-mbs-intl/index.html

If you're surprised by Saudi Arabia's fight with Canada, you haven't been paying attention
By Tamara Qiblawi, CNN
Updated 0358 GMT (1158 HKT) August 9, 2018
Canadian Foreign Ministry said it was "gravely concerned" by the arrest of Saudi activist Samar Badawi and other women's rights campaigners, and called for their release.
Since then, the Saudi government has responded with a steady string of retaliatory measures, expelling the Canadian ambassador from Riyadh and recalling the Saudi envoy to Ottawa, suspending Saudi state airline flights to Toronto, and ending thousands of Saudi scholarship programs in Canada.
Then on Tuesday, Saudi authorities announced they would halt all medical treatment programs in Canada and transfer Saudi patients to hospitals outside the country.

The Saudi foreign minister said "Canada has made a mistake and needs to fix it."
The kingdom also said it plans to freeze future trade relations between the two countries.
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia would not tolerate any foreign meddling in its internal affairs, and suggested his country would not be backing down anytime soon.
"Canada has made a mistake and needs to fix it," al-Jubeir said Wednesday. "The ball is in Canada's court."
Saudi Arabia's response has struck some observers as a disproportionate overreaction to a relatively routine criticism of the country's human rights record. US Senator Bernie Sanders described it as "outrageous" on Tuesday.

MBS is known for his aggressive reforms and muscular foreign policy.
Regional analysts, however, say the Saudi reaction is consistent with Mohammed bin Salman's heavy-handed -- and often thin-skinned -- approach to power since the 32-year-old took over as Crown Prince.
"Since Mohammed bin Salman has ascended to power, there's been an intensified repression of dissent," said Human Rights Watch Saudi Arabia researcher Hiba Zayadin. "What we're seeing now is that he doesn't want to be held accountable in any way, whether that's by the Saudis themselves or by the international community."
In the year since he was promoted to first-in-line to the throne, MBS, as he is known, has embarked on an aggressive mission to modernize Saudi Arabia and reassert the country on the international stage.
At home, he locked up hundreds of the country's business elite (including some of his own relatives and other Saudi princes) during a so-called "anti-corruption" drive, and used the billions of dollars recovered to ease the pain of austerity.


Mohammed bin Salman is on a make or break mission
And while MBS has lifted the ban on women driving and opened the first new movie theater in the country in 35 years, Saudi authorities have been cracking down hard on (predominantly women) activists, arresting a number of campaigners this year.
MBS has also taken a hard line abroad, instigating a bruising blockade of its tiny neighbor Qatar, picking fights with regional rival Iran, and prosecuting a costly war to oust rebels from Yemen.
While several Middle Eastern allies have backed up the Saudi response to Canada, the reaction from Western countries has been muted thus far.
"It's a little bit disappointing that no one feels they're in a position to come out and support the Canadians on issues that just a few years ago they probably would have been a lot more vocal on," said Peter Salisbury, a fellow at London-based think tank Chatham House.
Experts fear the spat could set a new tone for discussions about human rights among the international community. They warn that the Trump administration's downplaying of human rights in foreign policymaking will further enable authoritarian rulers to carry out abuses.
US President Donald Trump has been reluctant to publicly criticize Saudi Arabia for its rights record, and the State Department was criticized for failing to single out the kingdom in the introduction to its 2017 human rights report.

Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton pose with Samar Badawi as she receives the 2012 International Women of Courage Award.
"(Saudi Arabia's) actions are in many ways enabled by the Trump administration's shift of focus away from human rights by and large," said Brookings Institute fellow Hady Amr. "The President of the United States has expanded the boundaries of what is considered normal behavior. Because of that other countries are much freer to act within those boundaries."
On Tuesday, a State Department spokeswoman said that although "we have a regular dialogue with the government of Saudi Arabia on human rights and other issues," the US was encouraging Saudi Arabia and Canada to sort out their differences amongst themselves.
Samar Badawi, whose activist brother Raif has been behind bars since 2012 and is sentenced to receive 1,000 lashes, was arrested last week, rights groups said.
Raif Badawi's wife and children were granted asylum in Canada in 2015.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said those arrested were "lawfully detained by the public prosecutionfor committing crimes punishable by applicable law, which also guaranteed the detainees' rights and provided them with due process during the investigation and trial."
CNN's Sarah El Sirgany and Joshua Berlinger contributed to this report.

i think Saudi Arabia is slightly over-reacting, or... sending such a strong message they degrade their own standing in the world.

there is now an internationally viable womens rights movement in Saudi.

and that's something that the new Saudi rulers want to contain.

one one hand, they're granting women more rights, like the right to drive cars.

on the other hand they're imprisoning womens rights leaders who they think go too far too soon in their statements and demands and wishes.

and Arab jails don't have a reputation for being decent places to live.

this is something that will fuel international support for the Saudi women's rights movement.

what i recommend the Saudis do instead of jailing womens rights movement, is to publicly stonewall them instead, using subtle humor whenever possible.

this would make that international support a lot easier to deal with in the same way,
because the Saudis would avoid appearing like *oppressing* conservatives.

and you can basically stonewall entire movements like this for decades.

the US and EU history is laden with examples of that; women's right to vote, racial equality, gay rights, gender pay gap, environmental activism, and other "minor improvements" that also took decades to push through.

when you start imprisoning people and embark on diplomatic punishment strategies like displayed by Saudi Arabia here, you *shorten* the adoption of new social standards. and you ruin your own respect levels in too many places around the world that end up being more important than you thought.

 

[Clutch]

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/f...da-send-message-analysts-180808203344288.html



https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/08/middleeast/saudi-canada-diplomatic-feud-mbs-intl/index.html



i think Saudi Arabia is slightly over-reacting, or... sending such a strong message they degrade their own standing in the world.

there is now an internationally viable womens rights movement in Saudi.

and that's something that the new Saudi rulers want to contain.

one one hand, they're granting women more rights, like the right to drive cars.

on the other hand they're imprisoning womens rights leaders who they think go too far too soon in their statements and demands and wishes.

and Arab jails don't have a reputation for being decent places to live.

this is something that will fuel international support for the Saudi women's rights movement.

what i recommend the Saudis do instead of jailing womens rights movement, is to publicly stonewall them instead, using subtle humor whenever possible.

this would make that international support a lot easier to deal with in the same way,
because the Saudis would avoid appearing like *oppressing* conservatives.

and you can basically stonewall entire movements like this for decades.

the US and EU history is laden with examples of that; women's right to vote, racial equality, gay rights, gender pay gap, environmental activism, and other "minor improvements" that also took decades to push through.

when you start imprisoning people and embark on diplomatic punishment strategies like displayed by Saudi Arabia here, you *shorten* the adoption of new social standards. and you ruin your own respect levels in too many places around the world that end up being more important than you thought.

The message from this fiasco is that Trump supports Saudi Arabia over Canada in this argument.

Lol.

 

[timmy_area51]

their message is hate

 

[maximuswarrior]

Message is well received. Fvck around with us and this is what will happen. Saudi Arabia is not the only one. The mood of defiance is prevalent.

 

[timmy_area51]

the flying dutchman won't give a fv

 

[maximuswarrior]

the flying dutchman won't give a fv

LOL What up timmy boy.

You remember what Trump said when Canada fvcked up during trade deals? Canada will have to pay the price.

 

[Morpheus]

The message is clear. Saudi is now a lap dog of US, and if US says bark, Saudi will bark. Saudi will do whatever US tells it do, even if its own citizen are affected negatively.

 

[Vassnti]

LOL What up timmy boy.

You remember what Trump said when Canada fvcked up during trade deals? Canada will have to pay the price.

What price? So Canada buys a bit more oil from the US and a bit less from the Saudi's
When the S*** hits the fan Canada has food water and enough oil to get by, Saudi Arabia has oil.