- Wednesday 19 June 2013
- My Account
- Logout
- Register
- Login
- News
-
Voices
-
Find by writer
- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
- Rebecca Armstrong
- Memphis Barker
- Terence Blacker
- Chris Blackhurst
- David Blanchflower
- Archie Bland
- Ian Burrell
- Andrew Buncombe
- Ben Chu
- Patrick Cockburn
- Laura Davis
- Mary Dejevsky
- Grace Dent
- Robert Fisk
- Andrew Grice
- Stefano Hatfield
- Philip Hensher
- Ian Herbert
- Howard Jacobson
- Ellen E Jones
- Alice Jones
- Owen Jones
- Simon Kelner
- Dominic Lawson
- Donald Macintyre
- Lisa Markwell
- Comment
- Campaigns
- Debate
- Editorials
- Letters
- IV Drip
- Archive
- Our Voices
- Commentators
- Columnists
- Democracy 2015
- IV Drip Archive
-
Find by writer
- Sport
- Tech
- Life
- Property
- Arts & Ents
- Travel
- Money
- IndyBest
- Blogs
- Student
- Offers
Saturday 14 January 2012
Leading article: We play a risky political game in Saudi Arabia
With David Cameron in Saudi Arabia for his first visit since becoming Prime Minister, it is difficult to avoid the sense of the British Government once again holding its moral nose in the interests of our commercial and political influence.
As uncertainty rocks regimes across the Arab world, it is a game that is becoming even more difficult to play. And the moral trade-offs only look more squalid than ever.
There is little that can be said in favour of the Saudi Government. It is a stern autocracy that remains single-mindedly dedicated to the survival in power of its hereditary ruling elite and has, for 50 years, exported an obnoxiously intolerant version of Islam around the world. Indeed, in terms of its power structure, there is little to choose between the House of Saud and the repressive regimes tottering and falling across the Arab world.
Britain's long historical relationship with Saud Arabia has yielded no discernible influence on its abysmal human rights record. This is a country without political parties or elections, where the constitution is the Koran, and medieval, sharia-inspired punishments include stoning, amputation and lashing; where a proposal to lift the ban on women driving elicited a report by the nation's highest religious body warning that there would be "no more virgins" if the ban were lifted, and that men and women would resort to homosexuality and pornography; where a 34-year-old woman who defied the ban was sentenced to 10 lashes while another was recently beheaded for practising sorcery.
It is difficult, therefore, to build a plausible moral justification for Mr Cameron's trip to Riyadh to meet King Abdullah and Crown Prince Nayef. Trickier still given that his primary task is to persuade them to buy Hawk jets, training aircraft and all kinds of other British-made military technology.
That said, it is as well to weigh the economic realities of Britain's defence industry, which accounts for several hundred thousand highly skilled jobs and a good slug of our much-needed manufacturing base. Indeed, there is a tacit understanding of these things in Parliament. The cross-party Committee on Arms Export Controls may have queried mildly why we were still licensing arms exports to the kingdom "given there was some unrest", but such grumbling remains largely below the political radar. There are also political concerns at stake. With Saddam Hussein long gone, the argument goes, the Saudis are the region's last remaining bulwark.
Ultimately, for all the unpleasantness of the regime in Riyadh, Mr Cameron is unlikely to suffer any lasting damage from his one-day visit there. After all, in November he led Britain's largest-ever business delegation to China, a country with a human rights record if anything even patchier than that of Saudi Arabia.
But if it is too much to expect moral consistency from our Government's foreign policy, we can at least ask Mr Cameron and his Foreign Secretary, William Hague, to reassure us that they are aware that the sands of Arabia are continuing to shift in highly unpredictable ways. So far, the region's monarchies have survived the uprisings of the Arab Spring better than the other tyrannies. But while Morocco's King Mohammed has bought off much of the protest movement with reforms, the Saudi elite has barely responded at all. They will not get away with it for ever. The time for the people of Saudi Arabia to make their voices heard cannot be far off. And when they do, it will take some fancy footwork for Britain to come out on the right side.
Get your summer started with British Military Fitness
BMF is the UK’s biggest and best loved outdoor fitness classes
How will you make today delicious?
Tell us how you plan to make today delicious and you could win a £50 M&S gift card.
Learn a new language
Add another string to your bow with Rosetta Stone, whether it's Spanish, Italian or Mandarin...
Making reading fun for kids
Nook is donating eReaders to volunteers at high-need schools and participating in exclusive events throughout the campaign.
Introducing the 'Get Reading' campaign
Get the latest on The Evening Standard's campaign to get London's children reading.
Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Related Articles
Get the best in opinion from Independent Voices, straight to your inbox every Thursday lunchtime.
Subscribe
iJobs General
Senior Electrical Engineering Consultant – Renewable Energy Grid Connections.
Negotiable Depending on Experience: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green R...
BREEAM Consultant
£25000 - £30000 Per Annum: The Green Recruitment Company: The Green Recruitmen...
Design Engineer - ProE, Hand Calcs
Negotiable: Progressive Recruitment: Dear Sumadhab, A growing engineering comp...
Year 6 Teacher / Year Group Leader
Negotiable: Randstad Education Ilford: We are currently recruiting for a Year ...
Day In a Page
First night: The Cripple of Inishmaan
Scandi-geeks descend on Nordicana for fan-convention
Female aristocrats battle to inherit the title


