As we move on from Russia, let’s be clear-eyed about our relationship with the Saudis
When it comes to foreign policy, hawkishness is clearly in vogue. In the Conservative leadership contest, both the Truss and Sunak camps have vied to accuse each other of being dovish on China and soft on Russia. Would prime minister Truss or Sunak be a surer friend to Volodymyr Zelensky? Who would bring the hammer down more harshly on Chinese-owned companies like TikTok?
The tone is one set by outgoing premier Boris Johnson. Johnson ensured not only that the UK stepped up when Russia invaded Ukraine in February, but that we offered support both moral and material. But contrast Johnson’s resolute stance against Putin with his towards another state: Saudi Arabia.
An authoritarian country which enthusiastically sentences human rights defenders to lengthy imprisonment, Saudi Arabia also embraces the death penalty – 81 offenders were executed in a single day earlier this year – including by public beheading. Its leader is 36-year old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS.
Previously considered a progressive moderniser, the Crown Prince was revealed to have personally ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Khashoggi, an observant Muslim, was a fierce champion of women’s rights and defender of free speech. His life ended with dismemberment in Istanbul’s Saudi consulate, possibly followed by dissolution in acid according to the Turkish authorities.
Despite this, Boris Johnson has cultivated a relationship with bin Salman best described as sickeningly chummy. Earlier this year, former-Johnson aide Eddie Lister claimed the two have “chemistry”, adding “they just seem to hit it off”. The close friendship between the outgoing Prime Minister and Saudi Prince mirrors the UK’s lucrative mercantile partnership with this Gulf state.
The UK sells Saudi Arabia weapons, many of which are deployed in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia has been waging a brutal war since 2015, and been accused of multiple possible war crimes by United Nations investigators in the process. Since the conflict began, our total arms sales to Saudi Arabia, signed off by the government, amount to around £20bn. In return, the UK receives valuable foreign investment and an indelible moral stain.
The partnership appears particularly repulsive in light of our firm position against Putin’s jingoism. But as the energy crisis deepens and a very dark, cold winter for Europe looms, Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, is a more useful friend than ever.
Truss and Sunak well understand this dynamic. In March, Sunak defended Johnson’s trip to Saudi Arabia on the basis of energy security. In June, Truss declined to criticise the state’s dire human rights record. Sounding somewhat exasperated with her questioner, Labour’s Chris Bryant MP, Truss said “Is every country that we work with exactly in line with United Kingdom policy on everything? No…But they are important allies…”
For the UK to ally only with nations with whom we accord on all matters would be unworkable and foolish. Yet how morally compromised should we reasonably expect to become in meeting the demands of realpolitik? And what happens when what was considered the politically pragmatic move, if not most morally sound, is actually the opposite? Germany’s political class no doubt thought the series of decisions to build a close energy relationship with Russia deeply practical, but far from a warm economic hand bringing Russia in from the cold, the gas pipelines are now Putin’s cudgel.
To believe the UK can get away with supplying weapons that strengthen bin Salman’s position domestically and internationally, with no consequences beyond our own enrichment, may prove to be another such mistake. Learning Germany’s lesson, our new prime minister should coolly reassess our relationship with Saudi Arabia. Turning our back on the country may be self-harm, but certainly there is room – on human rights, on Yemen – for us to become a much more demanding partner then we currently are.