Thursday September 27, 2018
Jessica Donati
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir addresses the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit in the United Nations General on Sept. 24 in New York. PHOTO: JASON DECROW/ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK—Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called on Canada to apologize for demanding the release of imprisoned human rights activists on Wednesday, saying that a bitter dispute between the two countries was “very easy to fix.”
The diplomatic spat has had far-reaching impact on ties between the two countries since it erupted in August, when the Canadian Embassy published a tweet urging Saudi Arabia to release imprisoned human rights activists.
“What are we, a banana republic? Would any country accept this?” Adel al-Jubeir said at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. “Fix it. You owe us an apology.”
Saudi Arabia has said the activists were arrested in the months before the Twitter message out of national security concerns and not their advocacy work. The jailed activists include Samar Badawi, who received an award for courage from the U.S. State Department in 2012 and is also the sister-in-law of a Canadian citizen.
Mr. al-Jubeir, who is in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, defended the arrest of the activists over national security concerns. Canada should have made use of appropriate diplomatic channels to protest the kingdom’s record on human and women’s rights, he said.
“You can talk to us about human rights any time you want,” he said. “Apologize. Say you made a mistake.”
Canadian officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, or say whether the two countries had held a meeting during this week’s gathering of world leaders. Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland, said earlier this week she hoped a meeting would take place to discuss measures to resolve the crisis.
Saudi Arabia unveiled measures intended to hurt Canada financially after the Aug. 3 tweet was published.
Saudi Arabia’s central bank instructed its fund managers to sell off their Canadian holdings, a decision that could affect hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars of stocks, bonds and cash. The kingdom also halted all new business transactions between the two countries and stopped direct flights to Canada.
The spat also has affected thousands of Saudi patients and students who were ordered to leave Canada. Around 7,000 Saudi students were enrolled in Canadian universities on government-sponsored scholarships at the time. Medical students have been allowed to stay, while the rest have either returned to Saudi Arabia or claimed asylum in Canada.