SAUDI WATCH
THE pressure to improve human rights certainly eases when foreign potentates are welcomed amid the fanfare of huge business and inter-governmental deals, as happened last week in the Oval Office, with US president Donald Trump beaming over a $1tn bribe – sorry, investment – from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
Against such endorsement from the US, lobbying from human rights organisations, letter-writing individuals and the UN over Saudi abuses have had no impact on MBS as he parades as the modernising head of a decent state. Alas, Britain is no better. Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited Riyadh on an investment trip just a week after the execution of one of her host’s citizens for an “offence” committed as a child.