Sale must go on: Trudeau sticks to
$12bn arms deal with Saudis despite Khashoggi killing
Canada’s PM says it is “very difficult” to
drop the US$12 billion (Can$15 billion) deal on arms sales to Riyadh. It comes
despite mounting allegations that the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal
Khashoggi was “pre-planned.”
The murder of the self-exiled writer
which Turkey says was planned beforehand “is something that is extremely
preoccupying to Canadians, to Canada and to many of our allies around the
world” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged. However, even on the heels
of the latest tough accusations from Ankara, the North American country is not
mulling to halt arms deliveries to the Saudi Kingdom.
The contract signed by the previous government, by Stephen Harper, makes
it very difficult to suspend or leave that contract
Should Canada terminate the deal,
massive penalties will follow immediately, taking a toll on taxpayers. It is
estimated that Ottawa would lose around US$800 million (Can$1 billion).
“I do not want to leave Canadians
holding a billion-dollar bill because we are trying to move forward on doing
the right thing,” the liberal premier added without elaborating on what “the
right thing” would look like.
Trudeau's Bahamas vacation cost over
$215K — far more than initially disclosed
Less than two weeks ago, he also
signaled that Canadian-Saudi arms trade will go on as usual, despite again
voicing “concerns” about Khashoggi’s fate.
According to documents obtained by
CBC News in September, Saudi Arabian armed forces are to take delivery of 742
Canadian-built LAV-6 light armored vehicles. The same outlet revealed in March
that hundreds of the LAV-6s will be furnished with heavy assault and anti-tank
weapons systems.
Public outcry over the whereabout of
prominent Saudi Arabia critic Khashoggi has been mounting since his mysterious
disappearance in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. After having initially
claimed that the man left the diplomatic mission, Riyadh later caved in and
admitted that Khashoggi was killed inside the compound.
During a speech on Tuesday, Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there was strong evidence that the death
“was not a momentary result of something that erupted on sight but rather the
result of a planned operation.”
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s
largest consumers of weapons from Westerns powers. However, as chilling new
details on Khashoggi’s murder emerge, those countries appear to be divided as
to whether beefing up the Saudi war machine is a justifiable choice now.
Germany, for instance, imposed a
blanket ban on weapons deliveries, with Chancellor Angela Merkel noting “the
urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened” in the Saudi Consulate.
German ally France, however, is keeping silent.
However, Spain, which has been
playing a game of “back and forth” on arms deliveries to Riyadh, has taken
Canada’s view on the matter. Though expressing his “dismay” on the killing of
the prominent writer, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stated that sales of
precision bombs to the Gulf Kingdom should not be affected. Again, protecting
jobs was cited as an excuse to go ahead with the sales.
US President Donald Trump, who struck
a giant $450-billion arms deal with the Saudi monarchs, is also not keen on
losing big here. Calling the Saudis’ handling of the Khashoggi case “a total
fiasco from day one,” he still said that there are other ways to “punish” Riyadh.
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