Visit by Mohammed bin Salman

A visit to the UK by Mohammed bin Salman planned for October

August 2023

It has been confirmed today that a visit is planned to the UK by Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) of Saudi Arabia in October and the prime minister Rishi Sunak has apparently phoned him to discuss details. It places the UK into something of a quandary and is a test of our adherence to moral standards in our international relations.

It was only in October 2018 that the journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the embassy in Istanbul where he was murdered and dismembered. It is highly likely that MBS ordered the assassination. It caused an international outcry at the time and a British minister referred to it as an act of ‘appalling brutality’. This was not an isolated incident which could perhaps be explained as an overzealous act of a group of secret police. The human rights situation in Saudi is grave. Executions have increased since MBS came to power. Between 2010 and 2021, 1,243 were executed and in 2022, at least 147. 81 were executed in one day last year. The six bloodiest years have occurred since he came to power. The process is highly secretive and torture is practised to secure confessions. Minors are also killed.

Human rights organisations are banned. Critics of the regime are arrested. Women are not free although after a long campaign they are now allowed to drive.

Bin Salman has used the enormous wealth of the country to try and ‘buy’ a better image and we have commented before on the purchase of Newcastle United Football Club as part of a widespread programme of sportswashing. Football, golf, tennis, boxing, F1 motorsport and recently, some high profile purchases of footballers. Sporting organisations and sportsmen have happily accepted the largesse with seemingly no qualms about its source. Slowly, the issue of sportswashing has made it out of the back of newspapers into the news pages. It does seem however, that there are no misgivings or revulsion evident from sports people who are only too keen to take the money.

The vast wealth of the country, its immense reserves of oil and its desire to acquire weapons, means it has considerable influence over governments like the UK. There is thus a conundrum: we simply need Saudi wealth in a variety of ways and so we are forced to deal with an odious regime. We cannot it seems, afford to be squeamish. They can buy their weapons from a variety of countries and invest their wealth other than in, or via, the City of London. To pretend to be concerned about their human rights record, the executions, the treatment of women and their activities which have so immiserated Yemen, is not an option. Sporting people and their millions of fans are mostly unconcerned so why should we? Roll out the red carpet – which after all the French have done – arrange meetings with the King, hold our noses and sign the deals so vital for our economy. Is this where we are?

Money or morals?

The government has to choose: money or morals? It is likely to choose the former. They might wrap it up in claims of realpolitik but the power and immensity of the money – a wall of cash estimated to be around £1tn – is the deciding factor.

The UK was one of those countries which, sometimes reluctantly because of our continuing activities in the colonies, took a leading role in promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after the war. For a time we had an ‘ethical’ foreign policy. But it seems that slowly but surely, the need for business has led to the watering down of policies and quietly dropping our commitments to some kind of moral compass in our dealings with countries who flagrantly abuse the human rights of their citizens. Outrage is expressed at the treatment of the Rohingya in Burma but little seems to happen to stop insurers enabling jet fuel for example being sold to the regime. More outrage was expressed at the treatment of the Uyghurs in China but little action followed and cotton produced by forced labour still finds its way onto our shelves. Public outrage – let it go quiet – then back to business as usual. Is this the new policy? Will human rights be mentioned when MBS visits? It is doubtful.

Perhaps the visit by MBS represents the final curtain call on any claim we might have had for moral leadership to the rest of the world.

Sources: Channel 4; Reprieve; Amnesty International