British Foreign Secretary Dominic Rapp said he raised the human rights issue during his visit to Saudi Arabia a few days ago, stressing that he had expressed his concern about the detained Saudi women activists.
Rapp also commented on the Saudi public investment fund's bid to acquire the Newcastle United club by saying that his country welcomes investments, but there must be legal procedures and rules must be followed.
In this context, Alia's sister, Lujain Al-Hathloul, a Saudi female activist detained in Saudi Arabia, published a tweet in which she addressed the British Foreign Secretary, noting that one of the charges against her arrested sister was communicating with a British official as "an external hostile to the Kingdom", and the name of the human rights affairs officer was mentioned At the British embassy in Riyadh.
Calls for self-distancing
In its report published early May, the British newspaper "The Observer" said that the UK has become more dependent today on securing energy sources, and that this is the ideal time to distance itself from the "repugnant" Saudi regime.
The newspaper added in its editorial that the world is witnessing during this period a sharp decline in oil prices at the international level, as a result of the decline in demand for fuel due to the Corona virus, and that there are other factors that preceded and affected the crisis, such as the price war that has been taking place since the beginning of this year between Saudi Arabia and Russia, The increase in production that led to a surplus in crude oil and decreased storage capacity.
However, these explanations of market fluctuations hide behind another bigger and more exciting story, the story of the clean green energy revolution, after the rapid spread of wind and sunlight use, with expectations for the end of the fossil fuel era to come, as renewable energy will constitute 30% of the global demand for electricity during This year.
The newspaper added that Britain's often dysfunctional and embarrassing relationship with Saudi Arabia, which is one of the most important oil producers in the world, should be part of any reassessment that will take place after the epidemic recedes.
Earlier last March, in the context of his discussions with the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, former British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that he had dealt with the human rights file and the issue of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, detained women activists, and the guardianship law in the Kingdom.