Getting tough with the Saudis

The US House of Representatives have delivered to Saudi Arabia what must be the weakest example imaginable of a slap on the wrist.

While oil-rich Saudi Arabia has never been a large recipient of US aid, the Bush administration channeled a total of more than 2.5 million dollars to the kingdom in fiscal 2005 and 2006 as part of their partnership in the war on terror, congressional officials said.

Mohammed al-Zulfa of Saudi Arabia’s consultative Shura Council said the US action “represents one method out of several that the US Congress has used to pressure the Saudi government into carrying out reforms, whether in the fields of human rights or religious freedom.”

“The US Congress and other US organizations are mistaken if they think this method has any value,” he told AFP.

That should do the trick.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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