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| David Cameroon with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia last year |
Britain is suffering from a "credibility problem" in claiming to be backing reform in Saudi Arabia, which is described by MPs as "one of the least democratic states in the world with a notoriously poor human rights record" in a report published on Friday.
MPs on the foreign affairs committee are also asking the government to "assess" the supply of weapons by Saudi Arabia to Syrian rebels seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. But they said there would be no advantage in stopping lucrative UK arms sales to the conservative kingdom – triggering immediate condemnation of a "whitewash" by campaigners.
After a year-long investigation into Britain's relations with Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Bahrain, the all-party body says it is concerned about "limited but worrying evidence of a poor public perception of the UK in Saudi Arabia."
The report will be closely scrutinized in both Gulf countries, but especially in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, whose ambassador to the UK warned of negative consequences for bilateral relations when the parliamentary enquiry was announced last year.
The inquiry was launched against the background of the Arab Spring uprisings, the rise of Islamist forces and nervousness in the Gulf monarchies that the unrest would affect them. It took evidence from academics, businessmen, diplomats and defence sales officials. Read on and comment » | Ian Black, Middle East editor | Friday, November 22, 2013
My comment:
Human rights are always going to take a back seat for the UK government, whatever the hue, as long as such big contracts for arms sales are on offer. It is simply pie-in-the-sky to think otherwise. Hypocrisy rules the day. – © Mark
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