US ignores Saudi human rights breaches: Expert
Press TV has conducted an interview with Rick Staggenborg, an Oregon-based political commentator, to get his views on the US reaction to human rights violations in Saudi Arabia.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: What is to say about the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, a country which is allied with the US?
Staggenborg: Well, I think it is a pretty blatant example of the fact that human rights don’t exist for anyone who doesn’t support the government of Saudi Arabia within the country there and in particular, if they happen to be Shia, because the government maintains its power by promoting very radical brand of Sunni Islam that demonizes the Shia who the government sees as a threat to their power. I think that is why they are reacting so strongly simply to the Sheikh exercising his right of free speech.
Press TV: I want to pick up on your mention of threat to power, because many people say that this is a sign this sort of charge and sentence brought down against such a high figure, is a sign of human rights in this situation in Saudi Arabia as far as the stability goes. How do you feel about that?
Staggenborg: I have to tell you, I can’t fully understand what the government is doing there by bringing a lot of tension to their human rights violation, something that here in the United States at least is pretty well ignored, certainly by the government mostly by the mainstream media and American people. You are not seeing these kind of demonstrations that we just saw in London, in the United States not to my knowledge. And we really need to see that because the United States could very easily put the pressure on Saudi Arabia to not do these crazy things. This blatant human rights violation that you would think is going to make it harder and harder to maintain a fiction that the United States promotes democracy.
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