Plaid Cymru’s Foreign Affairs
Spokesperson, MP, has called
the Westminster Government “cowardly and hypocritical in equal
measure” for continuing to send diplomats to the Saudi Arabian
‘Davos in the dessert’.
Earlier this week, Mr Edwards called for the Westminster
Government to boycott Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative
(FII) which is scheduled to take place in Riyadh later this
month.
Following the call, the Westminster Government said the
International Trade Secretary, , will no longer attend the
conference, despite originally planning to do so. However, the
Plaid Cymru MP uncovered, in a written parliamentary question,
the Westminster Government’s intention to continue to send the
British Ambassador and other officials to the Saudi Arabian
conference. Further to the written question, Plaid Cymru also
understands that the UK’s Trade Commissioner for the Middle East,
Simon Penney, will also attend the event.
The Future Investment Initiative meeting follows the
disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist
and prominent critic of the regime. Mr Khashoggi was living in
exile, but has not been seen since entering the Saudi Arabian
consulate in Istanbul at the start of this month and is widely
considered to have been a victim of a state-sponsored
assassination.
The Plaid Cymru MP, , said:
“Spinelessly sending the British Ambassador to this
‘Davos in the desert’ shows just how desperate the Westminster
Government is to appease despots.
“Agents of the British State – be they ministers or
diplomats – should not be affording the rouge Saudi regime the
legitimacy of their presence.
“Hundreds of millions of pounds in arms sales, for use in
illegal international wars, should not be a motivation for
constraining criticism. But with British arms sales to Saudi
Arabia topping a billion pounds last year, that is exactly what
is going on.
“State-sponsored murder of journalists is not the actions
of any country Britain should call an ally.
“Saudi Arabia’s brutal bombing of Yemen, support for
extremists and, as we have seen recently, their treatment of its
critics, show they have no regard for the most fundamental of
human rights.
“A strategy of appeasement rather than addressing these
issues is cowardly and hypocritical in equal measure.”
ENDS
Notes:
