The Dilemma of Balancing Moral Concern Versus Profit

"We are looking at ... suspending export permits, which is something we've done in the past."
"We're also looking at the contract to try and see what we can do because obviously, as we get clarity on what actually happened to Jamal Khashoggi, Canadians and people around the world will expect consequences."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"Only if all European countries agree [European Union position on arms sales to Saudi Arabia] would this make an impression on the government in Riyadh."
"It will have no positive consequences [even if Germany were to stop its weapons exports to Saudi Arabia] ... if at the same time other countries fill this gap."
German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier

"With countries like Saudi Arabia, countries like China, the way you make the most progress is by talking to them in private."
"If you talk about these things publicly you lose the access ... they say, 'We don't want to deal with you', and you put yourself in a position where you have no influence over what's happening."
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt

"Saudi partners are appreciative of our balanced position."
"We continue to cooperate with Saudi Arabia's investment fund and other partners."
"There's a lot of speculation and unverified information around [viz-a-viz Khashoggi's death and the poisoning of Sergei and Julia Skripal]."
Kirill Dmitriev, Chairman, Russian Direct Investment Fund

In this promotional image, taken by the Canadian Forces and hosted on the General Dynamics website, General Dynamics Land Systems Canada Lav 6 vehicles like the ones being sold to Saudi Arabia are shown carrying troops. (Combat Camera/General Dynamics)

Suddenly, everyone has a conscience, everyone is horrified that a Saudi dissident journalist, throwing caution to the winds, enters a Saudi diplomatic mission in Turkey to obtain the documentation he requires to marry and never emerges alive. A truly clumsy, botched operation where an astonishing 15-person Saudi crew of professionals and experts are tasked with dispatching him to a premature death and dispose of the evidence, and they couldn't get it right. Exquisite attention to detail; a body-double exiting the consulate, a coroner to dismember the corpse, the parts to be buried in scattered areas....

Turkey, with enough ghastly human-rights skeletons in its own closets, swiftly trumpeted to the world at large that it was in possession of the gruesome evidence that its fellow Sunni-Muslim competitor for influence in the world of Islam and beyond had set out to silence a nuisance but ended up with the world looking on askance. And little wonder, given the nasty details that seeped out into the media. A lot more compelling, evidently, than the proxy war between the Sunni Kingdom and Shia Iran's grubby war in Yemen where thousands are being killed, mostly civilians.

A Southern People's Resistance militant loyal to Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi mans an anti-aircraft machine gun the militia seized from the army in al-Habilin, in Yemen's southern province of Lahej, March 22, 2015. There are concerns among human rights groups that the Saudis could use Canadian-made armoured vehicles against Houthi fighters in Yemen. (Nabeel Quaiti/Reuters)

 

So now the best-laid plans of inept, thin-skinned rulers like Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman have gone to ruin. Davos in the Desert has been deserted by global financial movers and shakers always so eager to invest in the desert Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with its endless source of fossil fuel extraction, and its wealth and hunger for weapons of war making it a favourite destination for international weapons dealers and manufacturers. And therein lies the crux of the problem; to sell or not to sell; to honour a signed contract, or cancel?

On the basis of the murder of one nuisance journalist whose own brand of Islam was fully as invested in violent jihad as the House of Saud. In Canada, SNC-Lavalin and Bombardier Inc. have become silent, unwilling to discuss their sales and investments in Saudi Arabia. The Canadian government is musing about cancelling a $15-billion contract to provide armoured military vehicles as contracted, vacillating because of a penalty clause worth in the billions.

In the EU, though there have been calls for deals to be placed in abeyance only Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has stated that arms exports to the country "can't take place in the situation we're currently in", expressly noting the death of Jamal Khashoggi. That Saudi Arabia has long funded mosques and madrasses teaching the Wahhabi Salafist brand of Islam that resulted in al-Qaeda and Islamic State is (yawn) incidental to the issue.

As for sales figures to Saudi Arabia; Spain, Germany, Italy and Switzerland account singly for roughly two percent of arms imports between 2013 and 2017, given figures provided by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institution. France was responsible for four percent of sales, and Britain 23 percent. None, however, come close to approaching American weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, at 61 percent. And nor is the U.S. administration even remotely considering reining in those exports.

The theory is, and it's no mere theory after all, that if those sources dry up, there are others willing and eager to fill the gap. And if there is a gap, they will fill it. Russia has already been in discussions with the Saudis inclusive of S-400 air defence systems, as well as interest expressed in having Russian Kornet-EM anti-tank missiles produced in the Kingdom, along with AGS-30 automatic grenade launchers and advanced Kalashnikov assault rifles.