Saudi Arabia wants Ottawa to apologise

Furious foreign minister said Saudi Arabia refuses to be lectured over human rights

We refuse to be used as political football in Canada’s domestic affairs, Al Jubeir says |

Saudi Arabia said it vehemently refuses to be used as a political football in Canada’s domestic politics or treated like a banana republic, and insisted on an apology to put an end to the dispute between the two countries.

Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir said his country refuses to be given orders or lectured to over human rights.

“It’s outrageous from my perspective that a country will sit there and lecture us and make demands,” Al Jubeir said at an event at the Council on Foreign Affairs in New York.

“‘We demand the immediate release.’ Really? We demand the immediate independence of Quebec. We demand the immediate granting of equal rights to Canadian [native] Indians. What on earth are you talking about?” he rhetorically asked, referring to tweets by Canadian officials demanding the immediate release of an antigovernment activist.

“You can criticise us about human rights. You can criticise us about women’s rights. America does. The State Department issues reports every year. The British Parliament does. The European Parliament does. The French Parliament

does. The German government does. Others do. That’s all right. It’s your right. We can sit together and talk. But ‘We demand the immediate release’ … What are we? A banana republic?

Would any country accept this? No, we don’t.” Al Jubeir warned such tweets could give the wrong signals to extremists. “You do this and you’re playing into the hands of extremists who are opposing our reform process.”

He said that Canada started the dispute and as such should be the one to fix it by presenting an apology.

“If we don’t take steps, it means that we’re weak. If we do take steps, we damage a relationship with a friendly country. We did not do this. You did. Fix it. Fix it. You owe us an apology.”

The Saudi minister said his country would never accept to be as a political football.

“We don’t want to be a political football in Canada’s domestic politics. That’s what we became. Find another ball to play with. Not Saudi Arabia. And that’s why the reaction in our country was so strong. Very easy to fix. Apologise. Say you made a mistake.”