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| Saudi Arabia |
Saudi Arabia continues to be one of Europe's key international allies with
ministers, Heads of State and even Royal families making every effort to keep the hard-line
Middle East kingdom on Europe's side.
But while Europe has no problems with the US forcing them to impose tough
sanctions on countries like Russia for their war with Ukraine, the
EU often falls deadly silent amid claims of human rights abuses and war
crimes by Saudi Arabia.
This attitude is remarkable
for the EU, which claims to cherish human rights and always stands ready
to protect it by all means possible. This while the Saudi royal family
regularly face
accusations of overseeing a brutal regime where political opponents are
executed, all criticism is censored and women are second-class citizens.
A kingdom which has also faced claims it is the breeding ground of Islamist terror groups across the world.
Here are seven reasons why the EU shouldn't be friends with Saudi - and one multi-billion EURO reason why it still is…
Crime and Punishment : Documents show ISIS & Saudi Arabia prescribe near-identical punishments for crimes.
Death Penalty: A recent report by human rights charity Reprieve found 171 people are currently facing execution in Saudi Arabia.
Nearly
three-quarters (72 per cent) of these were sentenced to death for
non-violent offences, including the attendance of political protests.
Those
found protesting against the kingdom's rulers are convicted of
'corrupting the Earth' - a charge which carries the death penalty.
Censorship: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights branded the
public flooding a "cruel and inhuman punishment… prohibited under
international human rights law".
Amnesty International has accused
Saudi's hardline rulers of systematically wiping out almost all human
rights activism in the country over the past few years, much of it under
the disguise of 'counter-terror' laws.
Peaceful activists from
one leading group are are said to have been rounded up, beaten and given
long prison sentences in an effort to “wipe out all trace” of the
organization.
It followed fears among the Saudi royal family that the 2011 'Arab
Spring' uprisings could inspire a similar revolt against themselves.
Treatment of women : Apart from considering women inferior to men Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that bans women from driving.
War Crimes: Since civil war broke out in Yemen this year, a Saudi-led coalition
has carried out airstrikes against Houthi rebels who overthrew the
country's government.
Riyadh has frequently been accused of war
crimes with hospitals, schools, markets, aid warehouses, charity offices
and refugee camps all said to have been targeted by Saudi-led coalition
airstrikes.
By September more than 2,200 civilian deaths had been registered.
One report by Amnesty International documented the use of
internationally-banned cluster bombs while the body of a one-year-old
baby was found in wreckage with his dummy still in his mouth.
The
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is currently considering legal
action against the Government unless it stops allowing British-produced
arms being sent to Saudi amid concerns of war crimes in Yemen.Is Saudi Arabia inspiring fanatical extremism?: Since the 9/11 terror attacks in New York in 2001 - when 15 of the 19
al-Qaeda hijackers were found to be Saudi nationals - the kingdom has
faced regular claims it is helping to breed Islamic extremism and terror
groups across the world.
The fanatical 'Wahhabi' strain of Islam,
which is centred in Saudi Arabia, is now said to be closest ideology to
that of ISIS - with some claiming the views espoused by Saudi's
Wahhabist clerics inspired the growth of the terror group.
Saudi
has also faced accusations it has tried to export puritanical Wahhabism
abroad over the last three decades, at a cost of €100B The cash is spent on building mosques or establishing madrassas -
religious schools - in other Muslim nations such as Pakistan, Indonesia,
Malaysia, India and parts of Africa.
Are the Saudi's Funding ISIS ? : Saudi Arabia has strongly denied it has provided funding to ISIS,
with officials pointing to new laws it has brought in to prevent money
from the kingdom going to jihadist groups.
But their denials still
haven't stopped accusations from some British politicians of a link
between the financing of ISIS and Saudi Arabia.
Last month former
British Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown claimed ISIS was continuing to be
funded by wealthy individuals from both Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
He said: "I don't say the governments have been doing it, but their rich businessmen certainly have."
Saudi money and weapons for anti-regime forces have poured into Syria soon after the country plunged into civil war.
Why are so many EU states still ever so closely connected to Saudi Arabia?: It comes down to one simple answer - Arms Sales : (click) EU
arms sales contributed to a large extend in propping up Saudi Arabia's
military and indirectly also contribute to increased terrorism and
violence in the Middle East.British
figures show that Saudi Arabia has twice as many British-made warplanes
as the entire RAF, and these same Government figures show two-thirds of
British-made arms go to the
Middle East with Saudi by far the major buyer. On
a global scale the above picture becomes even more interwoven and
complex when we include the US in this scenario. They are not only the
closest Saudi Arabia ally, but the US is also the major exporter of arms
to the Kingdom.
Just recently the U.S. approved a $1.29 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia,
despite widespread mounting evidence of the country’s mass atrocities
and possible war crimes in neighboring Yemen. This
sale included over 10,000
bombs, munitions, and weapons parts produced by Boeing and Raytheon. of
which 5,200 Paveway II “laser guided” and 12,000 “general
purpose” bombs. “Bunker Busters,” designed to destroy concrete
structures. Total US arms sales to the Saudi Kingdom last year are estimated to have been close or over $50billion.As the Shakespearean saying goes: "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark".
