Sumera B Reshi Canada
The row between Saudi Arabia and Canada started with a tweet over human rights. Since then the argument between Saudi Arabia and Canada has escalated into one of the biggest diplomatic rifts in the years between the two nations.
Just a few months ago, ubiquitous and ambitious 32-year old royal had boarded on an extensive global tour, called on politicians, business elites and other celebrities as part of a broader push to sell his dream of reform for the oil-rich kingdom. In March, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman emerged as an image who visualized to pioneer economic transformation and shared his vision to make the Middle East ‘the next Europe’.
Bin Salman’s message was clearly liberal optimism according to the Washington Post report, however, in August an explosive diplomatic tiff showed how fragile bin Salman’s narrative may be. Despite Bin Salman revolutionary ideals, however, the country has continued to take aggressive actions against some neighbors and those to criticize the kingdom, and concerns about domestic human rights practices persist.
What worsened the Situations?
What went wrong with Saudi Arabia and Canada which soured the relations? It all happened when Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland tweeted supporting Samar Badawi, sister of jailed blogger Raif Badawi. Her brother Raif was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam in his blogging.
Chrystia Freeland
✔@cafreeland
Very alarmed to learn that Samar Badawi, Raif Badawi’s sister, has been imprisoned in Saudi Arabia. Canada stands together with the Badawi family in this difficult time, and we continue to strongly call for the release of both Raif and Samar Badawi.
6:46 PM – Aug 2, 2018
As fallout, Saudi Arabia, pushed out the Canadian ambassador and also planned to pull out thousands of students and medical patients from Canada including suspension of Saudi state airline flights to Toronto. Another tweet which aggravated the situations further came from Foreign Policy CAN.
Foreign Policy CAN
@CanadaFP
Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in #Saudi Arabia, including Samar Badawi.
We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #human rights, activists.
As a result of the tweet that severed the ties between Riyadh and Ottawa, Saudi Arabia asked Canadian ambassador Horak to leave the country within 24 hours? Horak had a long diplomatic career. Prior to his appointment to Riyadh in 2015, Horak was the head of mission in Iran for the then-Foreign Affairs Ministry. He also spent a three-year stint as director of its Middle East Relations Division from 2012 to 2015.
Besides this Saudi Arabia retorted back by describing Canada’s statements as “blatant interference in the kingdom’s domestic affairs, against basic international norms and all international protocols” and a “major, unacceptable affront to the kingdom’s laws and judicial process, as well as a violation of the kingdom’s sovereignty,” according to the Washington Post news analysis.
The reaction is not new as the kingdom state has always been hypersensitive to criticism of human rights, according to Braun. To illustrate the reactionary approach of Saudi Arabia, Sweden, in 2015, criticized the kingdom’s human rights record, and as a result, Saudi Arabia took harsh diplomatic measures and expelled Sweden’s ambassador. Nonetheless, Braun’s reaction to Canada seems more severe as per Braun.
Moreover, analysts comprehend the move as both a power play for the kingdom’s young leader and a demonstration put on for the benefit of countries with stronger ties to Saudi Arabia than Canada. In the current dispute, analysts in Canada opine that the country represented ‘an easy target’ for Saudi Arabia in the emboldened crown prince’s bid to make an example of a dissenting voice at ostensibly low risk.
As stated by Bessma Momani, a political science professor at the Canada’s University of Waterloo, “You have a female foreign minister, you have a feminist prime minister…. It frankly sells in Saudi Arabia among [the] clique of like-minded dictators and autocratic regime leaders who are tired of the West telling them how to run things.”
Momani further added that the British parliament has criticized Saudi actions in Yemen without weathering a similar response. “You don’t pick on the UK, where a lot of Saudi tycoons have their money. You go after Canada. It’s an easy target.”
Additionally, political pundits believe that the KSA’s reaction to Canada may be a message “Maybe the ruling family wants to make an example of Canada and send a message internationally, that Saudi Arabia will extract a high cost for those who interfere in domestic affairs,” he said.
The nation also has a young new crown prince in power, Mohammed bin Salman, who is taking steps forward to modernize the country.
“By contrast to the old regime, the country believes it is modernizing, such as allowing women to drive, although this may seem minute to us,” Braun explained. “They see themselves as trying to engage in reform, but they are not being rewarded for it, instead Canada is shaming them. So it’s not only anger, it’s a lack of recognition.
Despite the diplomatic row between Riyadh and Ottawa, trade will not get damaged. As of now the trade between Riyadh and Ottawa is around $3 billion per year and the dispute won’t affect oil sales as per the statement issued by Saudi Arabia’s energy minister.
Canada, as usual, has been very vocal about human rights internationally and throughout its history has stood for it. However, Ottawa’s concern for human rights and speaking blatantly about its misuse in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has irked Saudi royal elite.
Rather than resorting to quiet diplomacy, Canada publicly shamed KSA. Currently, the relations between these two nations has become very frosty for the time being and will take some time to restore the relationship back on track as per experts.
“I think it’s going to take a cooling-off period, perhaps a significant cooling-off period for this brouhaha to pass over,” said Peter MacKay, who served as foreign affairs minister in the previous Conservative government.
“Saudi Arabia’s “extraordinary, fierce and impetuous” reaction this week makes it tough to quickly get things back on an even keel,” said Roland Paris, a former foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Further, Paris added, “I think the chances of normalizing the bilateral relationship in the short term are quite low. The Saudis seem to have made a decision to turn Canada into an example for other countries.
Saudi’s foreign minister, however, has called on Canada to ‘fix its big mistake’ but publicly offered no details on what Riyadh seeks to make amends. Canada will have to pull off some intricate diplomatic choreography and find a ‘face-saving message,” as per Braun. Nevertheless, Premier Justin Trudeau and Freeland have made it clear that Canada will not apologize for standing up for women’s rights. Trudeau, however, did offer some potentially appeasing language, saying that Saudi Arabia is ‘making some progress when it comes to human rights’.
As stated by Paris, there are risks to Saudi Arabia too and that its ‘arbitrary’ reaction could spook international investors at a time when the country is seeking billions of dollars in foreign investment to support domestic reforms. Some countries according to Paris has sided with Saudi Arabia like Jordan, Russia, Bahrain and the UAE while the US and UK avoided taking sides, thus preferred to stay silent. This is what Paris calls ‘significant symbol’ of how global politics is changing. The silence of the US according to Paris is not surprising because President Trump or the White House has shown least interest in addressing Saudi Arabia’s human rights issues. Besides the US, the silence by the European nations which neither criticized Saudi Arabia nor supported Canada. Their silence certainly disenchanted Canada and what Paris called ‘very uncourageous stance’
Impact of Saudi Arabia’s Reaction
The impact of Saudi Arabia’s tightening of diplomatic muscle is still unclear as per the experts. The decision to freeze new trade agreements could threaten Canada’s $15 billion arms deal that includes providing armored vehicles to the kingdom, but Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said it was ‘premature’ to comment on its status. Further, Finance Minister Bill Morneau downplayed the financial impact of the diplomatic dispute.
He said, “We have very strong trading relationships around the world. This is something where we know we need to lead with our values.”
On the contrary, as per France 24 detailed report published on 9th August 2018, Canadian universities are highly dependent on financing from foreign students, who pay higher tuitions than locals, and Saudi students make up the fourth largest contingent of foreigners.
Over the deepening crisis between Riyadh and Ottawa, Roland Paris tweeted that there is a big difference between Saudi Arabia’s utterly effective punishment of its diminutive neighbor Qatar and its retribution against Ottawa. “Canada isn’t vulnerable little Qatar. If the Saudis want to disrupt the education of their own students, it would be an unfortunate, self-defeating move.”
But on the other, the Saudi reprisals are unlikely to weigh too heavily on the Canadian economy. “Saudi Arabia is only second in terms of Canadian exports to the Gulf region and only nearly 10 per cent of petroleum imports from Ottawa come from the Saudi monarchy,” according to France 24 Canada correspondent François Rihouay.
Thomas Juneau, an assistant professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs commented on Saudi Arabia’s reaction as, “Overall, this is a risky gamble for Riyadh, one that could be damaging in the longer term. Crown Prince Mohammed is trying to pitch his country as a stable and attractive investment destination as part of his efforts to reform the Saudi economy. This impulsive decision [to sanction Canada], in combination with aggressive actions in Qatar, Yemen and elsewhere, can only be counterproductive in this regard.”
Whatever be the case, the fall out of the current crisis between Riyadh and Ottawa will be relative because Canada isn’t dependent on Saudi Arabia as Canada is a resource-rich country which allows it to speak freely. “It is a freedom of speech so rare today that contrasts with the deafening silence of the other Western chancelleries. None of them saw fit to support Canada in this affair, to not rankle Riyadh, a petroleum giant at the forefront against Iran,” according to Gauthier Rybinski, international relations specialist.
“The consequences of this crisis will be relative because Canada doesn’t depend on Saudi Arabia, all the more so because its natural resources allow it to speak freely,” international relations specialist Gauthier Rybinski told France 24.
Today, under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is willing to cut Canada loose in order to achieve its broader objective of signalling to the world that the new Saudi Arabia is serious about rejecting unsolicited criticism of its internal affairs. After all, bilateral economic ties are minor in the grand scheme of things. As per experts, what matters to Riyadh is that the message will be heard loud and clear across the globe.
