After Canada-Saudi row, West confronts risk of speaking up

AFP: Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic brawl with Canada has exposed what Western officials call “new red lines” in their engagement with the oil-rich kingdom, deterring nations from publicly criticising its human rights record.
A furious Saudi Arabia last month expelled Canada’s ambassador and froze all new trade after Ottawa denounced a crackdown on activists in the Gulf state, in an increasingly combative approach to international censure.
Canada has refused to give ground, vowing to always stand up for human rights globally, even as diplomats say high-level negotiations are ongoing between the two countries to resolve differences.
But Canada appears to be standing alone.
“We are coming to terms with the new red lines,” said a Western official, explaining why hardly any allies have vocally backed Canada’s stance.
“We are trying to understand: Can we still do critical tweets from foreign ministries in our capitals? What’s going to get you PNG’d?” the official added, referring to the expelled Canadian envoy being declared persona non grata by the kingdom.
Major Western powers including the United States — a key ally of Saudi Arabia — have not publicly asserted support for Ottawa.
Last month, the European Union had planned to release a public statement effectively backing Ottawa’s position on human rights, a Western source told AFP.
But the plan was dropped, with European and EU ambassadors instead delivering a “demarche” — a formal diplomatic note — in a private meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.
“Western countries will very much be wary of openly criticising Saudi domestic policy,” Bessma Momani, a professor at Canada’s University of Waterloo, told AFP.
“The Canadian case has proved that lots of business deals could be lost if criticism of Saudi Arabia upsets its rulers.”
Spain on Thursday said it will sell 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, involved in a ruinous bombing campaign in Yemen, after initially blocking the 2015 deal.
The U-turn comes after reports emerged that Riyadh was considering cancelling a 1.8-billion-euro warship contract with Spain — a deal that involves 6,000 jobs in a country with one of Europe’s highest unemployment rates.