Mohammad Al-Jefri, the deputy speaker of the Shura Council of Saudi Arabia, said on Tuesday 11 October that he hoped the European Union would intervene with Iran so that it stops financing terrorism and drops its expansionist attitude.
Addressing MEPs at the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Al-Jefri said it would be good to influence Iran not through threats but by reason not to back terror organisations. He pointed out that Hezbollah has officially said it is financed by Iran but its armed wing is seen by the EU as a terror organisation. Al-Jefri stated that Iran was top of the list of countries financing terrorism and in order for Riyadh to have good relations with Tehran, the latter would have to stop supporting violence and halt its expansionism in the region. He said it was not possible to live in peace with a country that was trying to dominate the region. More generally, he called on the EU to combine its counter-terror efforts with Saudi Arabia.
Al-Jefri talked about the situation in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is head of a coalition supporting President Hadi, who is fighting Houthi rebels backed by Iran. The Saudi politician said that the fact that there are not Yemeni refugees around the world was because Saudi Arabia is concerned about civilians in Yemen and does not target hospitals or civilian installations, focusing on military installations. The UN, however, denounces a catastrophic humanitarian situation in Yemen, with more than 20 million Yemenis (80% of the population) needing humanitarian aid. Questioned by several MEPs about air raids that killed more than 140 people over the weekend (see EUROPE 11642), he said his country had expressed regret and with the support of the United States would be opening an investigation into what had happened. He said that according to the information he had received, there was no tangible proof that it was really the coalition that was responsible, but the question was not to deny it, but to open an investigation.
Finally, asked by MEPs about the Sakharov prizewinner for 2015, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi (see EUROPE 11455), whose release Europe is demanding, Al-Jefri took a firm line, saying he believed in the separation of powers, and that everything that is judicial is neutral and could not be interfered with. He pointed out that Badawi had never come to tell them that what they were doing contradicted this or that right. He said human rights are respected in proportion to a country’s values and must not violate the norms and values of the country in question. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)