News / Interviews

‘US ignores Saudi rights violations for profitable ties’: Academic

Friday, 15 March 2019 9:12 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 15 March 2019 9:17 AM ]

In this file photo taken on April 13, 2017, activists take part in a rally in front of the White House in Washington, DC, to protest against Saudi Arabia's actions in Yemen. (Photo by AFP)

The United States’ political elite do ignore violation of human rights when it comes to having profitable ties with Saudi Arabia, says an academic.

In an interview with Press TV on Friday, Lawrence Davidson, a professor at the West Chester University, said that the Saudi authorities have been traditionally “very important” for American elite, who resisted to criticize the human rights record in the kingdom.

However, Davidson noted, “What we are seeing now at least in Congress is really an exceptional poke in the nose officially for the Saudis.”

Republican and Democratic senators in the United States have censured the Saudi kingdom over its devastating war on Yemen and other rights abuses, including the detention and torture of women’s rights activists and the murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.

Robert Fantina, author, activist and journalist, told Press TV that US President Donald “Trump has said that the Saudi relation is very important to the US.”

“The profit motive, profit margin, is what the US government especially under Trump but certainly under past presidents also, is what they look for,” the author argued.