OTTAWA -- The Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister threw cold water on hopes the diplomatic row between his country and Canada will come to an end on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly this week. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said at a Council on Foreign Relations forum earlier this week that she hoped to use the meeting as a chance to speak in person with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, but insisted Canada's fundamental stance to defend the rights of women's advocates was not going to change. A day later, in an interview with the same organization, al-Jubeir said the only way to end the impasse is for Canada to apologize. "We did not do this, you did," he said. "Fix it. You owe us an apology." The dispute erupted in early August, after several tweets from Freeland and Global Affairs Canada called on Saudi Arabia to release several political activists who had been detained in late July. It appeared that a translation of the tweets posted by the Canadian embassy in Arabic was what pushed the Saudi government over the edge. The Middle Eastern kingdom recalled its ambassador, barred future investments in Canada, banned imports of Canadian wheat, cancelled direct flights between Canada and Saudi Arabia, and pulled the scholarships of thousands of Saudi Arabian students studying at Canadian schools. Al-Jubeir said Wednesday the students remained in Canada until new placements could be found and that stories about Saudi patients in Canadian hospitals being flown elsewhere were exaggerated because there had only been two Saudi patients in Canada at the time. But he also said Canada's tweets were "outrageous" and likened them to being the same as if Saudi Arabia demanded Canada let Quebec separate. "'We demand the immediate release.' Really? We demand the immediate independence of Quebec. We demand the immediate granting of equal rights to Canadian Indians," he said, referring to Indigenous Peoples in Canada. "What on earth are you talking about?" Al-Jubeir added Canada's ambassador met with the public prosecutor who explained the charges laid against the activists. The charges aren't about human rights, but about national security, he said. "These four individuals who are accused of taking money from foreign governments, accused of recruiting people to obtain sensitive information from the government and passing it on to hostile powers, accused of raising money and providing it to people who are hostile to Saudi Arabia outside Saudi Arabia." He said he's happy to talk about human rights at any time, but will not be lectured about the issue.<doc-sep>NEW YORK—Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister called on Canada to apologize for demanding the release of imprisoned human rights activists on Wednesday, saying that a bitter dispute between the two countries was “very easy to fix.” The diplomatic spat has had far-reaching impact on ties between the two countries since it erupted in August, when the Canadian Embassy published a tweet urging Saudi Arabia to release imprisoned human rights activists. “What are we, a banana republic? Would any country accept this?” Adel al-Jubeir said at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. “Fix it. You owe us an apology.” Saudi Arabia has said the activists were arrested in the months before the Twitter message out of national security concerns and not their advocacy work. The jailed activists include Samar Badawi, who received an award for courage from the U.S. State Department in 2012 and is also the sister-in-law of a Canadian citizen. Mr. al-Jubeir, who is in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly, defended the arrest of the activists over national security concerns. Canada should have made use of appropriate diplomatic channels to protest the kingdom’s record on human and women’s rights, he said. “You can talk to us about human rights any time you want,” he said. “Apologize. Say you made a mistake.” Canadian officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, or say whether the two countries had held a meeting during this week’s gathering of world leaders. Canada’s foreign affairs minister, Chrystia Freeland, said earlier this week she hoped a meeting would take place to discuss measures to resolve the crisis. Saudi Arabia unveiled measures intended to hurt Canada financially after the Aug. 3 tweet was published. Saudi Arabia’s central bank instructed its fund managers to sell off their Canadian holdings, a decision that could affect hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars of stocks, bonds and cash. The kingdom also halted all new business transactions between the two countries and stopped direct flights to Canada. The spat also has affected thousands of Saudi patients and students who were ordered to leave Canada. Around 7,000 Saudi students were enrolled in Canadian universities on government-sponsored scholarships at the time. Medical students have been allowed to stay, while the rest have either returned to Saudi Arabia or claimed asylum in Canada. Write to Jessica Donati at jessica.donati@wsj.com<doc-sep>Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says she'll meet with her counterpart from Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The goal of the meeting would be to begin to mend fences between the two countries after an explosive dispute this summer following Canadian criticism of the kingdom's arrests of human rights activists. "I have been in close touch with Adel [bin Ahmed al-Jubeir] all summer. We call each other on our cell phones," she told a crowd at the Council of Foreign Relations​ in New York City Tuesday morning. "We are going to meet in New York ... We are hoping to meet in New York this week and I think that's a good thing." Ottawa called for the release of Samar Badawi, the sister of well-known detainee Raif Badawi, on Aug. 2. Samar Badawi is also the sister-in-law of a Canadian citizen. "We feel a particular obligation to women who are fighting for their rights around the world, women's rights are human rights," said Freeland. "And we feel a particular obligation to people who have a personal connection to Canada. A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian." Saudi Arabia responded with a string of harsh measures that included telling thousands of Saudi students on government scholarships to leave Canadian universities and relocate to other countries, a ban on Saudi flights to Canada, and orders to brokers and bankers to suspend transactions with Canadian entities. The kingdom also declared the Canadian ambassador persona non grata and gave him 24 hours to leave the country. He has not returned. Neither the aging and infirm King Salman, nor his son and the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, plan to speak at the UN General Assembly. Instead, Jubeir is in New York. It was Jubeir who spoke for Saudi Arabia at the height of the dispute with Canada, holding a news conference where he appeared to lecture Canada on its responsibility to defuse tensions. "Canada knows what it needs to do," he said. "Canada started this, and it's up to Canada to find a way out of it." Saudis partially relent But Canada did not back down, and instead the Saudi side appear to have quietly dropped at least one of their more extreme (and expensive) measures. After ordering medical students and interns to leave Canada by Aug. 31, Saudi authorities relented just days before the deadline, telling students they could continue at their posts for the time being. But the reprieve only helped about 1,000 Saudi medical students. At least 7,000 non-medical Saudi students were forced to interrupt their studies. Some chose to file asylum claims in Canada rather than obey orders to return home. Also, a major pending contract for Saudi Arabia to buy light armoured vehicles from General Dynamics Canada survived the dispute. CBC News recently reported that Saudi Arabia had reduced the size of that order. but that reduction had occurred more than a year before the latest dispute. Timing an issue Both Canada and Saudi Arabia have chosen to allow their foreign ministers, rather than heads of state or heads of government, to deliver their country's addresses to the General Assembly. Under UN protocol that means they must wait until later in the week to speak. Freeland speaks on Saturday morning. Jubeir is the last to speak in the whole week, on Saturday afternoon. The spat with Canada generated headlines around the world and was widely seen as a sign of the impetuous and aggressive style of the new crown prince, known to many Saudis by his initials MBS. The government of Canada has sought to defuse tensions with Saudi Arabia, but has said it will not apologize for its stance.<doc-sep>
Send this page to someone via email Saudi Arabia‘s foreign minister asked Canada to apologize for demanding the release of Saudi women’s rights activists and stop treating the kingdom as “a banana republic” if it wanted to resolve a diplomatic dispute between the two countries. In August, Saudi Arabia froze new trade with Canada, blocked grain imports, expelled Canada’s ambassador and ordered all Saudi students home after Ottawa called for the release of activists detained for urging more rights for women. WATCH: Trudeau says Canada continues to ‘engage diplomatically’ with Saudi Arabia 0:57 Trudeau says Canada continues to ‘engage diplomatically’ with Saudi Arabia Trudeau says Canada continues to ‘engage diplomatically’ with Saudi Arabia – Aug 23, 2018 Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday she hoped to meet with her Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Story continues below advertisement “It is outrageous from our perspective that a country will sit there and lecture us and make demands … We demand the immediate release and independence of Quebec, granting of equal rights to Canadian Indians. What on earth are you talking about?,” al-Jubeir said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday night. “You can criticize us about human rights, women’s rights … others do and that’s your right. You can sit down and talk about it, but demand the immediate release? What are we a banana republic? Would any country accept it? No! We don’t,” al-Jubeir said. WATCH: Diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia raises concerns at Montreal hospitals and universities 2:13 Diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia raises concerns at Montreal hospitals and universities Diplomatic dispute with Saudi Arabia raises concerns at Montreal hospitals and universities – Aug 16, 2018 The dispute arose from Canada’s criticism over the arrests, including that of prominent women’s rights campaigner Samar Badawi. Her brother Raif Badawi, a prominent blogger, is serving a 10-year sentence and has been publicly flogged for expressing dissenting opinions online. His wife and children live in Canada and are Canadian citizens. Story continues below advertisement A number of women’s rights activists, who campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system, have been targeted in a government crackdown in recent months, human rights’ groups say. READ MORE: Freeland hopes to meet with Saudi diplomats to discuss ongoing rift “We don’t want to be a political football in Canada’s domestic politics. Find another ball to play with. It’s very easy to fix. Apologize and say you made a mistake,” al-Jubeir said. Freeland said on Tuesday that Ottawa would not be changing its fundamental position. “Canada will always stand up for human rights … we feel a particular obligation to women who are fighting for their rights around the world,” she said. “And we feel a particular obligation to people who have a personal connection to Canada.” Germany and Saudi Arabia agreed earlier this week to end a diplomatic dispute. The spat started last November when Germany’s foreign minister at the time, Sigmar Gabriel, condemned “adventurism” in the Middle East, comments seen as an attack on increasingly assertive Saudi policies, notably in Yemen.