Yahoo: What Saudi Arabians want from Antony Blinken, Biden’s pick for secretary of state
Bader al-Ibrahim, a U.S. citizen journalist and doctor, has been languishing without charge in solitary confinement for over 18 months, denied access to a lawyer or contact with his family.
By: Ali Al-Ahmed
December 10, 2020
On Jan. 20, the Biden administration will inherit a relationship with Saudi Arabia that is as troubled as it has ever been, and it will likely be up to Antony Blinken, the president-elect’s pick for secretary of state, to help sort it out.
Over the past four years, a combination of Saudi authoritarianism and American enablement has produced a toxic mix of repression at home and adventurism abroad. The brutal murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the unprecedented humanitarian disaster in Yemen and the crackdown on peaceful dissent and protest within Saudi Arabia are the direct result of a transactional American foreign policy that has turned a deaf ear to the voices of innocent victims.
On Dec. 10, the world commemorates Human Rights Day. Our relatives and thousands of others unjustly imprisoned in Saudi Arabia have little to celebrate. Loujain al-Hathloul has spent the last two and a half years in prison for advocating for women’s rights. She has been tortured and denied family visits and is now on a hunger strike. On Nov. 25, Saudi authorities moved to try her as a terrorist.
Full article“>Full Article
Comments are closed.