Egypt says it supports Saudi Arabia in rights row with Canada
- by Jerome Frank
- in World News
- — Aug 10, 2018
Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Adel Aljubeir released a short statement on Twitter Monday saying that Canada was basing its assessment on "misleading information" and that Saudi Arabia "will not accept any attempt to interfere in its internal affairs".
Saudi Arabia's state media threatened Toronto in this grim tweet.
Analysts described Saudi Arabia's actions as a broader message to the world and an effort to demarcate the limits of reforms ushered in by the 32-year-old crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
But the country's reactions don't stop there.
"The only people buying oil from Saudi Arabia would be Irving".
The Middle Eastern nation has also frozen all new trade and investment with Canada, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Bill Morneau appeared to downplay the financial impact of the diplomatic dispute.
"It shows the real colours of the regime, and the worldwide community should toughen its tone against the Saudi government", she said.
The Saudi government also banned new trade with Canada, although it was unclear if it would affect existing annual Saudi-Canadian trade of more than £3bn billion and a £10bn defense contract.
On Monday evening, the airline, Saudia, made the announcement on its Twitter account that it was suspending flights from the 13 August. The university also didn't know how numerous Saudi students are in Windsor during the summer break.
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Israel says Hamas, which rules Gaza , is using the protests as cover to carry out cross-border attacks. The deaths of two of its fighters could trigger an escalation between Hamas and Israel.
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What has the response been so far, at home and overseas?
"The normal diplomatic route would have been to call the ambassador in and to let him know your displeasure and then to try to move from there", MacKay, Canada's foreign affairs minister from 2006 to 2007 and defence minister from 2007 to 2013, said in an interview with BNN. "We are always going to speak up for human rights, we're always going to speak up for women's rights, and that is not going to change".
The decision came after Canada demanded the immediate release of human rights activists detained in a new crackdown, including the sister of jailed blogger Raif Badawi. He said the university also benefits.
The European Commission said it's seeking clarification about the arrest of activists in Saudi Arabia.
All of which is to say that maybe the United States, 17 years after 9/11 and the missing 28 pages, should really, finally, reconsider its relationship to the repressive, Al Qaeda-dealing Saudi regime.
Guido Steinberg, a Middle East expert at the German Institute for worldwide and Security Affairs, believes there are two reasons why Saudi Arabia has reacted so harshly to the statements from the Canadian Foreign Ministry.
Saudi Arabia responded to the criticism with an array of sanctions that included suspending flights to Canada, expelling the Canadian ambassador, freezing all business between the two countries and terminating its student exchange program.
Who is Dennis Horak and where is he now?
On Sunday, the Saudi foreign ministry said it had given the Canadian ambassador 24 hours to leave the country and recalled its own ambassador to Canada.
