King Salman shows why we must question power

KING Salman of Saudi Arabia’s plea to the international community to halt Iran’s (alleged) nuclear programme and his personal support for UN efforts to end the war in Yemen has absolutely no connection with US promises to share with the world recordings that clearly show his country’s guilt in the murder of reporter Jamal Khashoggi.

Strangely, though, the promise by the US administration to release the incriminating recordings did not happen. I wonder why?

Perhaps it might be that Mr Trump’s ill-advised policy on Iran, concocted to bolster his personal ratings in advance of the disastrous midterm elections, has not been recognised by anyone as a strategic tour de force.

So will the USA release evidence that incriminates Saudi Arabia and heir apparent Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman? Or will that great country of liberty and justice not release this information because Saudi Arabia is such a wonderful ally and should continue to be exempt from the moral strictures of any country worth its salt?

Having not questioned Saudi Arabia on its position of having had 15 of its nationals involved in the 9/11 attacks on American soil and instead invading Iraq, it is not altogether surprising the US administration is now refusing to release information that clearly shows Saudi Arabia is guilty of murdering a critic of its regime. One wonders how far Mr Trump will go.

Perhaps it is a reflection of how secure Saudi Arabia feels in its control of the country and the dissent within the country – as Mr Trump might have said

if he had a modicum of intelligence (“very worrying, very worrying”, why does he always repeat himself? What a moron!) – that it did not back Turkey in that country’s attempt to commit genocide against the Kurds.

Although I suspect Turkey will in any case deny such genocidal murders in the same way as it had the Armenian genocide of one-and-a-half million Armenians starting in 1915, and then declaring it a crime in Turkey to profess that there was such an event.

It is up to us to continually, and with passion and verve, deny the deniers and confront the immorality of the powers that be and speak the truth, not only to the world as it is, but much more importantly to our children.

We can teach them not to believe in the words of self-serving politicians and governments, but to stay true to themselves and to question every word of those in power. George Dalzell

Stillorgan, Co Dublin