Riyadh stops sending patients to Canada
riyadh — Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday it had stopped all medical treatment programmes in Canada and was working on the transfer of all Saudi patients from hospitals there, in an escalating row after Ottawa urged it to free rights activists.
Saudi Arabia froze new trade and investment with Canada and expelled the Canadian ambassador this week, pushing Canada to seek help from the United Arab Emirates and Britain to try to defuse the dispute.
State news agency SPA said Riyadh had stopped sending patients to Canadian hospitals and “is coordinating for the transfer of all Saudi patients from Canadian hospitals ... according to directives by the leadership”.
It was unclear how many Saudi patients would be affected by the decision and how many were covered by the kingdom’s health care system. The government provides health care services through several government agencies for public employees. The move follows a series of measures the kingdom has taken since the row erupted on Monday.
The kingdom has suspended educational exchange programmes with Canada and moved Saudi scholarship recipients to other countries, while Saudi state airline Saudi said it was suspending flights to and from Toronto.
Saudi Arabia’s main state wheat buying agency, the Saudi Grains Organization (SAGO), has told grains exporters it will no longer accept Canadian-origin grains in its international purchase tenders, European traders said.
Inside Saudi Arabia, the measures were supported by a media campaign criticising Canada’s human rights record and praising the Saudi rulers’ firmness in “protecting the kingdom’s sovereignty”.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to hold a news conference in Montreal, where he will be pressed on the diplomatic crisis.
Canada is planning to seek help from the UAE, and Britain to defuse the dispute which looks set to damage what is a modest bilateral trade relationship worth nearly $4 billion a year. Canadian exports to Saudi Arabia totaled about $1.12 billion in 2017, or 0.2 per cent of the total value of Canadian exports. —