Posted on 08/08/2018 7:48:42 PM PDT by tcrlaf
Saudi Arabia is ordering its citizens to leave Canada, selling its financial assets there and freezing trade between the two countries as part of an extraordinary diplomatic spat that has brought into global view the kingdom’s extreme sensitivity to Western criticism.
The steps follow the Canada’s foreign ministry’s chastising Saudi Arabia for its recent arrest of human-rights activists. Canada’s foreign ministry, in a Twitter message sent on Friday, called on Saudi authorities to “immediately release” the activists.
The Saudi government rejected what it described as Canada’s unacceptable interference in its domestic affairs, and on Monday expelled the Canadian ambassador to the kingdom and recalled its own from Ottawa.
Since then, Saudi Arabia has unveiled measures intended to hurt Canada financially.
Saudi Arabia’s central bank instructed its fund managers to sell off their Canadian holdings, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The kingdom has also halted all new business transactions between the two countries; it stopped direct flights to Canada; and it ordered Saudi patients and students to leave the country. Some 7,000 Saudi students are currently enrolled in Canadian universities on government-sponsored scholarships.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
What did the Canadians do to receive such good news?
I can't help but cheer on the Saudis here. The Canadians stepped in it, big time, diplomatically speaking. Canada should realize it is not a superpower. Trudeau is no Trump. Canada’s foreign ministry should not have used Twitter to criticize the Saudis. I hope Canada learns from this.
Good for the Saudis.
I don’t say that lightly. But I’m sick and tired of Western liberals trying to export GloboHomo everywhere else.
Not really. Canada is the 10th largest economy in the world. The Saudis are 19th. The Canadian GDP is almost 3 times the size of the Saudi one.
The Saudis are a one trick pony, and are far more vulnerable. The Canucks have 36 million intelligent hard working people. The Saudis have 32 million of the most lazy and backwards people God ever put on earth.
A fitting squabble between leftists and muslims. Bring it on.
The Canadians were right to call out the Saudi jackasses. The world has kissed Saudi butt for too long and let them access to our societies despite their evil barbaric BS.
I don’t like Trudeau, but I’m 100% with Canada in this controversy. I’d like to see our government grow a backbone and do the same thing. It’s embarrassing to see every US president dance like a monkey on a stick for the Saudis.
Canada can probably do this because the Saudis cannot sink their currency the way they can out petrodollar.
” Trudeau is no Trump.”
Bambi vs. Godzilla.
The truth is, the Saudis can do very little to materially hurt Canada. What do you do? Cut them off for oil exports?
The Backwards Saudis produce nothing of value the Canadians cannot live without. Not to mention, LOTS of Canadian soldiers have been there in the Saudi sponsored wars.
The Saudis arrested a woman who simply wants normal human rights. Time the rest of the world stops making excuses for the Saudis.
Even this “reformer” king is a backwards bully deserving no respect. His goal is to maintain an absolute feudal monarchy and spread sunni islam.
“Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir criticized Canada’s statements, and accused the country of “blatant interference in the Kingdom’s domestic affairs, against basic international norms and all international protocols”.
That’s rich, coming from the country that has build 900 new mosques in America since 9/11 and worked non-stop to interfere in American domestic affairs, going as far as to insist US FBI training remove all mention of islam.
The Saudi’s 15 minutes are up.
The issue here is Canada's criticism of Saudi imprisonment of a Muslim Brotherhood follower.
Obama used the MB to depose Mubarak of Egypt and install "democratically" a MB government. The Egyptians came to their senses and threw the MB out of power, handing out the death penalty to many. So much for Obama's "Arab Spring". Stinging from that policy defeat, Obama single-handedly fostered ISIS.
So the MB has become a Leftist cause celebre, from Hillary Clinton to Euro leaders to Justin Trudeau.
Now Saudi has an entente cordiale with Israel and supports Trumps position on Iran. What a refreshing change!
In that context, we have every reason to support Saudi and oppose the socialist in Ottawa.
Realpolitik and the Trump foreign policy mandates leaving our views on Saudi society for another day, Rhino.
Trudeau is so shocked that one of his mock eyebrows have become unglued again!
Not a Trudeau fan but the Saudis are venal. The official Saudi twitter feed published a photo of a plane heading for the Toronto skyline, conveniently reminding us of their funding for Bin Laden and his ilk as well as supplier of 15 of the 9/11 animals. Canada will not miss the Saudi $$$.
Personally I am looking forward to Saudi investment in Tesla. That is surely a match made in hell.
The young Prince is taking massive steps to bring SA into this century at great personal risk to himself.
Canada criticism was stupid beyond words.
Succinct and Perfect. Share more when you can.
Trudeau’s criticism of Saudi human rights abuse is not the problem. The problem is he chose to be so sanctimonious from a position of weakness.
First, he killed the Energy East pipeline that would have delivered crude to eastern Canada refineries, that depend on train shipments from the US and Middle East oil. If you want to engage in a trade war with an oil rich country, then first become self sufficient.
Second, he has hypocritically praised/defended other dictatorships and islamic while singling our the Saudis. Trudeau is not speaking from a consistent moral high ground, he’s choosing to criticize the one islamic dictatorship that has taken a stance against Iran and other terrorist groups. I don’t trust the Saudis one iota, but they are not the worst of the worst. They became Trudeau’s target for crass political reasons.
Third, Trudeau thought that his support for all things muslim, his importation of Syrian refugees, his welcoming of phony refugees from America, and his “hug a terrorist” campaign, would give him a free pass when he chose to songkebour the Saudis. Appeasement is always seen as weakness, as the Saudis are now demonstrating.
Finally, he failed to line up support from other western nations before taking on the Saudis. He created the situation where the Saudis could single out Canada for retaliation without fear that the USA, Europe or the Asian democracies would support Canada. A gross miscalculation that shows, once again, that Trudeau the Younger is out of his depth.
I suspect Saudi Arabia picked a country it could afford to stop doing business with and, by its behavior, is threatening all the other countries. The Saudis are afraid of the #metoo movement and what it might mean to their trade and culture. So, they opted to get ahead of the curve and show the world what would happen if somebody criticized them and their brutal ninth century culture.
This is actually a display of weakness and fear on their part. They can see themselves losing oil dominance. Their foreign reserves are at an all time low. They are being challenged by Iran, the new kid on the block. They are losing a war in Yemen, a country they out gun by a hundred to one. Iran is credibly threatening to mine Saudi’s exits to the Indian Ocean which would throw the country into revolt. (SA pays their citizens not to revolt. No income, no pay. They have already reduced the payments across the board, including to the “employed” royals.)
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