Politics

Saudi Arabia: Striving for a political pole position

Published

1 year ago

June 15, 2023

A recent meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) ended with a high level of agreement on potential joint initiatives, openness but also with “acknowledging where we have differences,” a senior US official told Reuters news agency.

This comment highlights the fact that the Saudi-US relationship has long ceased to be an unbreakable and taken-for-granted partnership.

“The relationship between the two countries has deteriorated, especially under the presidency of Joe Biden,” Stephan Roll, a Saudi Arabia researcher at the Berlin-based think tank German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), told DW.

Another reason may have been the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, allegedly orchestrated from Riyadh, which led to a low point in their relations.

According to Roll, ties to Western countries as a whole have deteriorated. “These are seen in Riyadh as arrogant, unreliable and demanding,” he told DW.

Rapprochement with China

The extent of the good relations between Saudi Arabia and China is also appreciated in Beijing, as was seen last December when Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a three-day state visit to Riyadh. He wanted to usher in a “new era” between the two countries, Xi declared at the time.

This also involves economic interests. For example, investment agreements worth about $50 billion (€46 billion) were signed during the talks, according to comments made by Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih. Furthermore, the Kingdom will supply 690,000 barrels of oil a day to China and in turn, the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei is to set up the highly efficient 5G technology in the Kingdom.

These agreements highlight Saudi Arabia’s quest to modernize its economy economically and socially in order to make it fit for a stable and prosperous future without relying on oil wealth alone.

Easing tensions in the Gulf

China is moving swiftly to establish its new political role in the region. In April, the foreign ministers of the two previously hostile major powers in the region, Saudi Arabia and Iran, shook hands in Beijing under Chinese auspices. The danger of an armed escalation in the Persian Gulf thus appears to have been considerably reduced.

“In principle, both countries do have an interest in bilateral relations, but it is Saudi Arabia in particular that is keen on it,” Roll said. The rapprochement with Iran, he said, is indispensable in order to be able to settle the conflict in Yemen where the two adversaries are indirectly opposed to each other. “The end of the war is indispensable so that Saudi Arabia can make itself more attractive as a business and investment location and free up financial resources that were previously needed because of the war,” Roll said.

He also suggests that Riyadh is grateful to the Chinese for their mediation work. “The US, for example, would not have been able to do that,” Roll said, referring to the fact that the US and Iran do not maintain diplomatic contacts.

Historic handshake: A China-brokered deal has brought Middle East rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia closer together Image: Iranian Foreign Ministry/AFP

Russia, war & oil

Riyadh has also been recalibrating its relations with Moscow, and is cooperating with Russia even at a time when Western countries have imposed sanctions over Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Following a recent meeting of the OPEC+ cartel, Saudi Arabia promised to start cutting its oil production by one million barrels per day from July. The kingdom appears to be tolerating the fact that Russia has not given any assurances that it, in turn, would also limit production levels. Since the beginning of its attack on Ukraine and the loss of exports to Europe, Russia has been in urgent need of exports to Asia, especially India and China, to finance the war.

Saudi Arabia agreed to cut its oil output while Russia maintains its level in dire need for money. Image: Igor Russak/dpa/picture alliance

Tapping into BRICS

Saudi Arabia is also seeking proximity to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the BRICS nations. During a meeting in Cape Town a few days ago, they discussed the admission of new members. Saudi Arabia is attractive to them not least as a potential investor in the BRICS’ New Development Bank.

Saudi Arabia’s possible accession could provide the country with a host of potential partnerships and stronger trade relations. At the same time, this bloc — already accounting for 30% of oil and 22% of gas consumption worldwide — would grow as a counterweight to the Western energy market.

Joining the BRICS countries could, however, also help Saudi Arabia become a key political player. If competition between the West and a possibly emerging Eastern power bloc around Russia and China were to intensify, Saudi Arabia would have good ties to both sides.

The BRICS countries have an interest in ties with Saudi Arabia and its potential investment in the joint BRICS bank. Image: Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service/TASS/picture alliance

Venezuela to Israel

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s recent visit to Riyadh is another indication of Saudi Arabia’s policy of establishing good contacts with many sides and not allowing itself to be tied down to one partnership alone. By welcoming the authoritarian leader, Saudi Arabia demonstrated that it shapes its foreign policy according to its own criteria.

However, the fact that Saudi Arabia also wants to continue to cultivate its relations with the Western world is evident not least in its relationship with Israel. Even if the country, unlike some of its neighbors, has not yet officially normalized its relations with the Jewish state, it is committed to maintaining a good relationship — despite its recent rapprochement with Iran, which regards Israel as an arch-enemy.

Here, too, Riyadh is pursuing concrete interests. For example, with the help of the US, it would like to build a nuclear power plant that would supposedly serve exclusively civilian purposes — a request the US is unlikely to agree to without the fundamental consent of Israel, whose security interests could be affected.

In order to foster Israeli approval, Saudi Arabia appears to have focused on culture and education issues and has largely purged Saudi textbooks of anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish passages.

The UK-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), whose research includes the issue of anti-Semitic sentiment in textbooks around the world and particularly in Islamic-majority countries, said that Saudi Arabia had recently revised its teaching materials accordingly. “Problematic examples” with regard to Jews and Christians had been removed, IMPACT-se said.

What are Saudi Arabia and Iran hoping to gain?

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Politics

‘Disgraceful:’ N.S. Tory leader slams school’s request that military remove uniform

Published

1 day ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.

Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.

A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”

Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.

“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.

In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”

“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”

Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.

Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.

Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.

“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.

“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.

“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.

“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”

NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”

“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Politics

Saskatchewan NDP’s Beck holds first caucus meeting after election, outlines plans

Published

1 day ago

November 8, 2024

Anne Joseph

REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.

Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.

She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.

Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.

Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.

The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.

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Politics

Nova Scotia election: Liberals say province’s immigration levels are too high

Published

2 days ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.

Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.

“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.

“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”

The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.

In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.

“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”

In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.

“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”

Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.

Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.

“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”

In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.

In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.

“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”

Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.

“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”

The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.

“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.

“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette in Halifax

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