Riyadh blocks Sweden FM address at Arab League meeting
The Swedish foreign minister says Saudi Arabia has blocked her scheduled speech at an Arab League meeting in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo.
“The explanation we have been given is that Sweden has highlighted the situation for democracy and human rights [in Saudi Arabia] and that is why they do not want me to speak,” said Margot Wallström in Cairo on Monday, adding, “It’s a shame that a country has blocked my participation.”
Wallström implicitly criticized the Arab League for allowing Saudi Arabia to exert such a considerable influence on other member states.
The Arab League had invited the Swedish official to give an address to the ministerial meeting of the organization in praise of Stockholm’s official decision to recognize Palestine as an independent state in October 2014.
The decision to cancel the speech “has also put the Arab League in a difficult situation since it means that a country can block an event of this kind," Wallström added.
An Arab diplomat has confirmed the news about canceling Wallström’s scheduled address in Cairo, AFP reported.
Back in January, Wallström had lashed out at Saudi Arabia for sentencing an anti-government activist to 1,000 lashes.
Despite the Saudi ban on her speech, Wallström reiterated her earlier stance on the case.
“One must protest against what are nearly medieval methods” of punishment, she stated.
In May 2014, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was convicted of cybercrime and insulting Wahhabism, and thus sentenced to 1,000 lashes - to be carried out in 20 sessions in front of a mosque - ten years of imprisonment, a one-million-riyal fine ($266,000), 10-year ban on overseas travel abroad after his release, and 10-year ban from participating in visual, electronic and written media after his release.
In January, Badawi received his first 50 lashes, but the sentence was temporarily suspended by the Saudi judiciary after his case was referred to the Supreme Court.
Saudi Arabia is also under fire by rights groups for imposing stifling restrictions on women, including the notorious driving ban.
Wallström is famous for her support for women’s rights. During a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in the Swiss city of Geneva last week, the Swedish top diplomat said her “feminist foreign policy” aims to “strengthen gender equality, improve women’s access to resources and increase women’s representation.”
FNR/HMV/SS
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