CANADA, U.S. DIFFER ON SAUDI RELATIONS

Liberals feud while Trump pursues friendly rapport

WASHINGTON, D.C. • When Donald Trump became U.S. president, his first foreign trip was not to Canada, Mexico or anywhere in Europe, his closest neighbours and allies.

It was to Saudi Arabia for a lavish state welcome that left Trump literally beaming.

Since then, the White House has steadfastly supported the Saudis’ bloody war in Yemen, sided with it against longtime U.S. ally Qatar and largely overlooked the Arab power’s suppression of dissidents.

And when the Saudis lashed out at Canada this week for criticizing their human rights record, the U.S. response was muted, referring to both countries as allies and declining to endorse Canada’s position.

On Tuesday, a State Department spokeswoman said the U.S. would not get involved in the spat, amid reports the Liberal government was looking to other countries for help to resolve the tension.

The American reaction points to a study in contrasts: as Canadians chastise Saudi Arabia for imprisoning human-rights activists, the White House has made embrace of the kingdom — warts and all — a cornerstone of its Middle East strategy.

“Human rights hasn’t been forgotten entirely, but it’s certainly a secondary consideration on U.S. policy in Saudi Arabia,” Allen Keiswetter, a former U.S. diplomat in the region now with Washington’s Middle East Institute, said in an interview Tuesday. “The U.S. has soft-pedalled human rights.”

The Reuters news agency quoted sources Tuesday as saying that Canada is asking the United Arab Emirates and the U.K. for assistance in smoothing the waters.

The American stance may even have contributed to Saudi Arabia’s aggressive reaction to Canadian lecturing on Twitter in the first place, said one analyst.

“The broad contours of U.S. foreign policy, especially under President Donald Trump’s administration, clearly signal decreased appetite to engage on foreign issues or support democratization efforts,” said Ayham Kamel of the Eurasia Group. “Absent a strong U.S. voice on human rights and democratic values, Arab leaders have become less willing to tolerate Western advice on either political reform or governance.”

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Bill Morneau defended Canada’s actions Tuesday, saying it is important to propagate Canadian values around the world.

Saudi Arabia expelled Canada’s ambassador, ordered a freeze on new trade and recalled thousands of its students studying in Canadian universities, after Global Affairs Canada voiced concerns in a tweet last week about the activists’ arrest.

“We’re going to stand with the values that we know are important to Canadians and Saudi Arabia will take the decisions that they will take,” Morneau said at a news conference in Mississauga, Ont.

The Global Affairs Canada tweet had said Canada is “gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia, including Samar Badawi.”

It urged Saudi authorities “to immediately release them and all other peaceful human rights activists.”

That call for prompt freeing of the prisoners was “unfortunate, reprehensible and unacceptable in relations between states,” the Saudi foreign ministry said.

A statement from the State Department Tuesday referred to Canada and Saudi Arabia as both “close partners of the United States,” and said it has asked the Saudis for more information on the detainees, while generally encouraging the kingdom to “respect due process.”

But it offered no comment on the rebuke of Canada, and a State Department spokeswoman later said the two nations need to “diplomatically resolve this together. We can’t do it for them.”

Trump’s visit to Riyadh in May 2017 featured a series of spectacular ceremonies, including a traditional sword dance in which the president briefly participated. He and Saudi leaders signed what the president called a “tremendous” $110-billion accord that included arms sales and investments.

By contrast, Canada’s $15-billion sale of light armoured vehicles to the country has been shrouded in controversy, which has reportedly irritated Saudi rulers.

Keiswetter, the former U.S. diplomat, said the president is eager to have a powerful regional ally in his fight against the Iran nuclear deal, while generally distancing himself from predecessor Barack Obama, who famously called the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia “complicated.”

The U.S. overtures coincide with the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has initiated a series of reforms on one hand, while cracking down on dissidents on the other.

When the young prince put hundreds of political rivals, including relatives, under house arrest last November, Trump praised the royal family, tweeting that “they know exactly what they are doing.”