Paddy Ashdown has told the Independent that the growing tension between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the wake of the Saudi executions carried out over the weekend is “a far greater danger” than ISIL. He said that the UK Government should be robust about calling the Saudis out for their actions:
Lord Ashdown said Saudi Arabia’s sudden mass execution of prisoners – including the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr and a number of young political protesters – may have been intended to derail the ongoing Syrian peace talks in Vienna.
These executions are deeply, deeply destabilising to the very delicate situation that exists in the Middle East and the danger of a wider Sunni and Shia conflict. The West, including the UK government, is only just realising the danger of this and its implications for long term peace in the region. It poses a far greater danger in the long term than, for example, Isil,” the former Lib Dem leader added.
The UK Government should be making it explicitly clear that it regards this act as extremely destabilising. These executions are shocking in human rights terms and reveal the real nature of the people with whom we are dealing. The UK’s stance underlines its deeply illogical position of ignoring the funding of jihadist groups, including Isil, which is coming from within Saudi Arabia.
In the same article, Ming Campbell, while still critical of the Saudi actions said that he thought we shouldn’t be going out of our way to alienate either Saudi Arabia or Iran as we needed both of them onside against ISIL:
However, former Lib Dem leader Lord (Menzies) Campbell said that he believed the Government’s current approach to Saudi Arabia was correct. “The Saudi Arabian government is well aware of UK opposition to capital punishment as indeed are the Iranians who also practise it. There is no reason why we should not repeat that opposition as often as is necessary to do so,” he said.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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6 Comments
Tim over the weekend , Paddy and Ming here , are all three correct , though I do not agree with Ming on the government, which is seen to be too cosy with Saudi Arabia ,yet it is essential we maintain dialogue . Having said that it has delivered little . Prisons , human rights commissions , a peculiar cosiness for sure , yet Britain cannot impress upon the Saudi s to release RAIF BADAWI !Instead , AN OUTRAGE !!!!!MASS EXECUTIONS !
BY THE WAY CAN SOMEONE SAY WHETHER ANYTHING IS HAPPENING RE RAIF BADAWI , A LIBERAL HERO ?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Delivers OIL? perhaps a good case to get on with Fracking and extraction of shale gas?
Good analysis by Paddy. Ming Campbell, though, is plain wrong.
Is there any doubt that governments of all stripes put profit above fundamental human rights? The barbarity of the Saudi Arabia is hardly news. The Saudis appear to distinguish themselves from ISIS by saying that they are a state and that they have a judicial system that follows sharia law prior to carrying out sentence. I would be genuinely grateful if anyone could explain in what other ways they differ from ISIS.
The excuse that we are maintaining dialogue with countries with whom we have billions of pounds of contracts is wearing rather thin. The dialogue does not seem to have produced a great deal, not even as Lorenzo points out, the release of Raif Badawi.
The recent executions have been a catalyst for increased tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran ( no slouch itself when it comes to barbaric sentences), but are ordinary mortals in the west really surprised by Paddy Ashdown’s analysis that the ongoing hostility, excused and justified by religious difference, is such a major threat to stability and world peace?
Please look at the casualties on both sides which happened in the Iran – Iraq war.
The effect of the huge number of dead and wounded altered the demographics.
At an AGM in Tunbridge Wells Nancy Seear told us that many women in the UK had not had husbands because of the deaths in World War One.
Enid Lakeman agreed with her.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-baroness-seear-1268965.html