The West’s approach to Saudi Arabia: ‘one step forward, two steps back’

Foreign Minister of Saudi-Arabia, Adel al-Jubeir at a press conference after talks in the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin, Germany, 25 May 2016. Picture by Bernd von Jutrczenka/DPA/PA Images. All rights reserved. Saudi Arabia entered
the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in a
combative manner. The Kingdom’s delegation did not arrive as
representatives of a reformed country, despite over a year of
aggressive rebranding efforts. Instead, Foreign Minister Adel
al-Jubeir and his colleagues took to the podium in the face of
strained relationships with Germany and Canada, and a U.N. inquiry
into war crimes in Yemen.

Last November,
Germany’s then-foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel condemned
Saudi adventurism in the Middle East. His ‘shameful’ comments —as
Riyadh described them— came following the snap resignation of
Lebanese PM Saad Hariri, who suspiciously announced his decision
during a visit to the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia hastily recalled its
ambassador in Berlin. Months later, economic ties were curtailed,
and remained so going into UNGA.

Just as asymmetric
was the reaction to Canada’s support of Saudi activists. When
Global Affairs Canada tweeted
messages of solidarity with detained Women’s Rights advocate Samar
Badawi, the Saudi Foreign Ministry issued an excoriating response,
slamming attempts to ‘interfere’ with the Kingdom’s internal
affairs. A slew of reprisal measures followed, including an
ambassadorial recall, the cancellation of flights to and from Canada,
and an ultimatum for Saudi students at Canadian universities to
return home. A pro-Saudi handle on Twitter went so far as to
insinuate 9/11-esque
attacks on Toronto. Such was the backdrop over which Saudi and
Canadian delegates met at UNGA.

Of utmost
importance, however, was Saudi Arabia stymieing a U.N. inquiry into
human rights violations in the ongoing war in Yemen. The lives of
thousands of Yemeni civilians have been rendered collateral damage in
the Saudi-led coalition’s fight against Houthis. Most searing in
memory is an airstrike on a school bus in early August that killed
over 40 children. Any sound investigation would find the coalition
guilty of war crimes. No wonder, then, that Riyadh strove so
aggressively to prevent one: a
diplomatic letter issued ahead of UNGA ominously warned that any
support of investigations would ‘negatively affect’ trade with
Saudi Arabia.

Going into UNGA, the
Kingdom’s record was far from spotless. Saudi diplomats, however,
defended recent reactions towards western ‘meddling,’ and clearly
did not hesitate to threaten countries in favour of greater U.N.
scrutiny over Yemen. How did the West respond to such pressure?

‘A simple
misunderstanding’

German Foreign
Minister Heiko Maas expressed
regret at UNGA for Berlin’s row with Riyadh, attributing the
rift to ‘misunderstandings’. Pro-Saudi ‘electronic flies’
were quick to comment on social media, advancing an Arabic hashtag
reading, ‘Germany apologises to Saudi Arabia’. Maas was
purportedly ‘egged on’ by German industry that was hurt by Saudi
Arabia’s retaliations.

Germany’s
rapprochement with Saudi Arabia came at the expense of western ally,
Canada. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland appealed
to a gathering of German ambassadors in late August, ‘hoping for
support’ in defending Human Rights regardless of ‘consequences’.
Yet Ottawa’s call for support was largely unanswered by Berlin at
UNGA.

Freeland, and
Canada, stand firm 

Freeland, to her
credit, rose above Germany’s fecklessness. The Canadian Foreign
Minister made
clear her country’s ‘particular obligation’ to women
fighting for their rights. She also emphasised a commitment to those
with ‘a personal connection to Canada’ —a reference to Samar
Badawi, whose sister-in-law Ensaf
Haidar is a Canadian citizen. 

Saudi Arabia
expectedly shot back. In a speech to the Council on Foreign
Relations, Al-Jubeir deemed Canada’s ‘lecturing’ tantamount to
treating the Kingdom as a ‘banana
republic’. But in a show of mercy to his Canadian counterpart,
he added, “It’s very easy to fix. Apologize and say you made a
mistake.” Freeland refused, asserting that giving in to such a
demand would ‘strip Canada of its humanity’.

Canadian policy has
yet to reflect such resilience, however. A prime and effective
punishment against the Saudi regime would be curtailing arm sales.
Save for the scaling-back
of an order of armoured vehicles from 928 to 742 —initiated before
the diplomatic spat over concerns unrelated to human rights—
Canada’s arm sales have carried on as normal. Critics have called
for the deal to be totally scrapped in light of Riyadh’s
aggression. Only time will tell whether Freeland and her government
will match rhetoric with concrete action.

Western hypocrisy
over the U.N. inquiry on Yemen

The vote to extend
the U.N. investigation on Yemen presented a clear example of the
West’s ‘one step forward, two steps back’ manner of dealing
with Saudi Arabia. Despite Saudi threats to cut off trade with
countries in favour of prolonging the inquiry, the motion passed
with votes from Canada and the EU. And in an interview with Sky News,
UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt deemed
Saudi behaviour in Yemen as ‘totally unacceptable’. He emphasised
the need for a political process to resolve the conflict, as opposed
to the Saudi-led coalition’s ‘military solution’.

Such support,
however, belies established western policy towards Saudi Arabia,
specifically in the realm of defence. Minutes after Hunt criticised
Saudi excess in Yemen —inevitably perpetrated, in part, by British
jets and bombs—, he staunchly defended
the £4.6bn in U.K. arms licensed to the Kingdom since 2015. Never
mind that 63
percent of British citizens are opposed to arming Saudi Arabia;
as justification, Hunt cited the ‘bombs that have not gone off in
the streets of Britain’ thanks to Saudi counter-intelligence.
“We’re different countries. We behave in different ways”, he
added.

Hunt’s German
peers similarly embodied this contradictory stance. Days after UNGA
concluded, news broke that Chancellor Angela Merkel had doubled
arm sales to Saudi Arabia. This not only goes against Germany’s
support of the inquiry, but broke a promise that Merkel’s governing
coalition made earlier this year to withhold weapons from all
combatants in Yemen’s war —a proposition that 80
percent of Germans supported. And Spain, who had previously
canceled a sale of 400 laser-guided bombs to the Kingdom, reneged
ahead of UNGA. In towing this hypocritical line, western powers are
actively enabling the very human rights violations they seek to
expose.

A moral
crossroads and the path forward

The West must make
up its mind on Saudi Arabia. Germany, Canada, Britain, Spain, and
others cannot continue to give lip service to human rights in
international forums while arm sales to a known war criminal
skyrocket. Ending, or at least limiting, arm sales not only respects
the view of a majority of Westerners, but is morally correct. Yemen
stands as one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our time. As
German arm sales to the Kingdom have doubled, cases of cholera in the
Hodeidah region of Yemen have tripled.
Save the Children estimates that more than five million children face
starvation.
To suggest that depriving the Saudi-led coalition the weapons it
employs in Yemen would not help alleviate the suffering of Yemeni
people is erroneous.

Nevertheless, even
in the face of public opinion and sobering statistics, the West has
proved intransigent. A more direct, grass-roots opposition is needed.
Concerned individuals should make more noise on social media: a
veritable beachhead against arm sales has sprung up under the
hashtags #StopArmingSaudi
and #YemenCantWait.
Organisations such as the U.K.-based Campaign
Against Arms Trade and ACAT
France are at the forefront of this movement, along with
activists like Sam Walton
and Andrew Smith.
And, for an MP, reading a letter or tweet from a constituent is far
more influential than another academic report. As these voices grow
louder, it will be incumbent on their respectives to respond. Until
that day comes, the stereotype of the U.N. as a place of empty
rhetoric prevails.