Saudi Arabia and Canada are currently retained in a diplomatic spat over human rights, with both powers refusing to back down despite a breakdown in future trade see ti, suspended passenger flights and a flurry of other sanctions.
The war of words between the two states stems back to a series of tweets from Canada’s Foreign Bureau last week, when Ottawa expressed concern over arrested proper society activists in Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh called the move a debasement of its sovereignty and sought to impose a string of diplomatic sanctions against the North American hinterlands.
In a tweet posted Friday, Canadian officials urged Riyadh to “right now release” women’s rights activists Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah. Both campaigners were stopped in Saudi Arabia in late July, according to Human Rights On the qui vive for.
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Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry took exception to Canada’s online explanation, calling it a “grave and unacceptable violation of the kingdom’s laws and procedures.”
Anon afterwards, the Middle Eastern country announced punitive measures against Ottawa, encompassing the expulsion of the Canadian ambassador.
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Some analysts say Saudi Arabia’s budge to sever diplomatic ties with Canada could be seen as both a power act for the kingdom’s relatively young leader and a sign it is no longer willing to softly ignore Western demands for political liberalization.
Saudi Arabia’s Authority Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently went on a global tour to commend economic reforms in the country and even championed the kingdom as the “next Europe,” although universal concerns about domestic human rights practices persist.
Saudi Arabia has towned a flurry of diplomatic sanctions against Canada. On Monday, the country recalled its agent to Canada for consultations and gave the Canadian ambassador 24 hours to departure the kingdom.
The government also froze all new trade with Ottawa, indecorous around 16,000 students in the North American country to either requital home or complete their studies in another part of the world and countervailed all direct flights to Toronto via its state airline.
More recently, Saudi Arabia sojourned all medical treatment programs in Canada and is coordinating for the transfer of all Saudi patients currently meet care in Canadian hospitals to be moved outside of the country.
And on Wednesday, the Saudi inside bank and state pension funds ordered overseas asset heads to offload their Canadian equities, bonds and cash holdings “no meaning the cost,” the Financial Times reported, citing two unnamed sources.
Saudi Tramontane Minister Adel al-Jubeir threatened additional measures on Wednesday, tattling reporters that mediation is not an option because the fault lies with Canada unescorted, Reuters reported.
Despite the backlash, Canada doubled down in its push for Riyadh to immediately release arrested campaigners and activists.
In her in the beginning public response to the dispute on Monday, Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland bring to light: “Canada will always stand up for human rights in Canada and about the world — and women’s rights are human rights.
Trade between Canada and Saudi Arabia came in at slight over $4 billion last year, with a significant ration stemming from a controversial deal to sell combat vehicles with mechanism guns and cannons to the Saudis, The Globe and Mail reported.
The arms do business, which received a critical stamp of approval from Prime Chaplain Justin Trudeau’s government in 2016, could now be under treat into the middle Saudi Arabia’s imposed trade freeze.
In terms of trade book, Saudi Arabia is Canada’s 17th largest trade partner — with oil, perchance unsurprisingly, accounting for most of the Islamic kingdom’s exports to Ottawa.
The Collective Arab Emirates, Bahrain and the Palestinian Authority have all stood by Saudi Arabia in the thick of the country’s spat with Canada, according to the kingdom’s state media.
Yet, the U.S. — traditionally one of Canada’s sundry important friends — has stayed on the sidelines of the dispute thus far.
State Jurisdiction spokesperson Heather Nauert told a briefing Wednesday: “Both sides penury to diplomatically resolve this together. We can’t do it for them; they need to conclude it together.”
Elsewhere, leading women’s rights campaigner Manal-al-Sharif thanked Canada for “speaking up” on Monday, before questioning whether other international leaders would be prepared to follow suit.
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Amnesty Ecumenical also called on the broader international community to follow Canada’s come and speak out against human rights abuses.
The campaign group specifically importuned Western powers with influence over Saudi Arabia — such as the U.S., U.K. and France — to accessible up for civil society activists.
“The world cannot continue to look the other way as this remorseless persecution of human rights defenders in Saudi Arabia continues. It is now era for other governments to join Canada in increasing the pressure on Saudi Arabia to emancipating all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally, and end the crackdown on freedom of expression in the countryside,” Samah Hadid, Amnesty International’s Middle East director of electioneers, said Monday.