Saudi ambassador: Treat us 'with respect' or ties could suffer

The Saudi Arabian ambassador to the UK was yesterday accused by human rights activists of writing a “disingenuous, evasive and intimidatory” article that appeared to hint at a withdrawal of economic and security co-operation unless Britain treated the kingdom “with respect”.

Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz’s opinion piece was published in the Daily Telegraph on the day the Islamic Human Rights Commission urged the UN to halt the execution of Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, a Saudi cleric who had called for pro-democracy demonstrations.

The ambassador’s call for “fairness” in Britain’s treatment of his country came after Jeremy Corbyn used his party conference speech to highlight the plight of Sheikh al-Nimr’s nephew Ali who, the Labour leader claimed, was threatened with beheading and crucifixion “for taking part in a demonstration at the age of 17”.

It was also written five days after Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, told the Commons that he did “not expect” Karl Andree, 74, an asthmatic British grandfather and cancer sufferer to “receive the [350] lashings that he has been sentenced to” for being caught with homemade wine.

The ambassador said the Saudis were “an invaluable source of intelligence” in helping the UK combat terrorism, and that Saudi Arabia “provides over 50,000 British families in the UK and the Kingdom with livelihoods, thanks to commercial contracts worth tens of billions of pounds”.

Noting that “Saudis also have an estimated £90bn in business investments in the UK”, he added: “If the extensive trade links between the two countries are going to be subordinate to certain political ideologies, then this vital commercial exchange is going to be at risk. We want this relationship to continue but we will not be lectured by anyone.”

Allan Hogarth, head of advocacy at Amnesty International UK, said: “The Saudi ambassador indicates that cooperation on economic and security issues is subject to the UK keeping quiet on human rights. There’s no way we should bow to this pressure.”

Mentioning the blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes after criticising the kingdom’s clerics, Mr Hogarth added: “The facts on Saudi Arabia’s grim human rights record speak for themselves and can’t be ignored.”

Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that as well as the article being “disingenuous and evasive”, “there was some sort of subtle intimidation in the lines about how we don’t want this robust relationship with the UK to go south – but it could”. Referring to how Saudi Arabia had temporarily stopped issuing visas to Swedish businessmen in March after the Swedish government criticised the kingdom’s human rights record and ended a defence co-operation agreement, Mr Coogle said: “Saudi Arabia is willing to use its economic might to intimidate people into backing off.”

A Labour spokesman said Mr Corbyn “stood by the comments in his speech” after Mr Abdulaziz accused him of “breaching mutual respect” by claiming he had convinced the Government to withdraw earlier this month from a deal to help with the training of Saudi prison officers.