🧵: Five years after Jamal Khashoggi's murder, the UK is abandoning its purported support for democratic values for petrodollars - restoring ties with Saudi Arabia despite the kingdom’s human rights abuses, argues @sarahleah1 from DAWN
middleeasteye.net
middleeasteye.net
About five years since Khashoggi's murder, which was ordered by the Saudi crown prince using a team of assassins, the UK is preparing to roll out the red carpet in London for Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), having already restored arms sales to the government, writes Whitson
“What the British people should be asking is whether the profits for the British defence industry are worth the national values and security for which they've been traded”
✍️ Sarah Leah Whitson | @sarahleah1
✍️ Sarah Leah Whitson | @sarahleah1
Much like the rest of the world, the British government's initial response to Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi consulate was one of shock, horror, and disgust.
However, Whitson notes, less than two years later, the government was singing a different tune
However, Whitson notes, less than two years later, the government was singing a different tune
When the Biden administration announced in 2021 that it would end the sale of "offensive" weapons to Saudi Arabia, the UK refused to follow suit.
“But the UK's public embrace of MBS needed to wait for further softening by the US, signalled by Biden's 2022 fist-bump with MBS”
“But the UK's public embrace of MBS needed to wait for further softening by the US, signalled by Biden's 2022 fist-bump with MBS”
“With the US back in the saddle, the UK had to move fast to keep up with the contest to rebuild ties to the Saudi monarchy. It pushed for a new free trade agreement with the Gulf states,” writes Whitson
Some say that "in the world of realpolitik, the UK has no choice but to get along with the abusive Saudi government... What these arguments never factor in are the equally real costs to Britain's credibility and the security and safety of its own residents"
✍️ Sarah Leah Whitson
✍️ Sarah Leah Whitson
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly recently claimed that the UK's support for the war in Ukraine reflected not only a commitment to freedom and democracy but a message to dictators.
“Sadly, this is a lesson that Britain refuses to learn when it comes to Saudi Arabia”
“Sadly, this is a lesson that Britain refuses to learn when it comes to Saudi Arabia”
“And if the stiff neutrality or outright refusal of countries outside of Western Europe to support Ukraine against Russia is any indication, few in the world believe Cleverly's rhetoric about democracy or freedom either,” Whitson writes
Not only has Riyadh persisted in heinous abuses in the region - against its own citizens; its brutal war in Yemen, and massacres of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers at the Saudi border - but continues to attack and threaten activists in the UK, Canada and US, writes Whitson
“The real cost of milking Middle East profits, it turns out, is the global loss of belief in Britain's commitment to any values at all”
✍️ Sarah Leah Whitson | @sarahleah1
✍️ Sarah Leah Whitson | @sarahleah1
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