The Saudi regime violations and its black record of human rights are met with widespread international criticism and attend in various international forums and events, most recently the US presidential elections.
Democratic candidates for the upcoming US presidential election have strongly criticized the Kingdom amid threats from some of them to punish it for the authorities’ detention and war crimes in Yemen, and the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The criticism of the Kingdom appeared in a televised debate among Democratic candidates to represent their party in the 2020 presidential election, according to the website “The Intercept”.
“I will openly declare it, we will not sell more weapons to the kingdom, we will actually force them to pay the price and make them outcasts,” said Joe Biden, a potential candidate, referring to Riyadh’s role in the Yemen war and the killing of Khashoggi.
“What we should know is that Saudi Arabia is not a reliable ally. We have to rethink the identity of our allies around the world, work with the United Nations and not continue,” candidate Bernie Sanders described Riyadh as “a brutal dictatorship.” In supporting brutal dictatorships.”
“When President Donald Trump did not take the position he should have taken when killing and cutting a journalist working for an American newspaper, he sent a signal to all dictators in the world that it was acceptable,” said candidate Corey Booker.
It is noteworthy that ten candidates participated in the debate, while 17 Democrats are competing for the nomination of their party, and their common goal to remove Trump from the White House in November 2020.
Since 2015, a coalition led by the Saudi regime has been waging war in Yemen under the pretext of supporting the legitimate government against the Iranian-backed Houthi group, at a time when the country is experiencing its worst humanitarian crisis.
On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi was killed inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul, and the case has become one of the most prominent and widely circulated on the international agenda since then.
After 18 days of denial, during which Riyadh provided conflicting interpretations of the incident, the Kingdom announced the killing of Khashoggi following a “quarrel” with Saudi people, and the arrest of 18 citizens as part of the investigation, without disclosing the location of the body.
The CIA and Western governments said they believed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
Bin Salman denied this, but said he bore ultimate responsibility for his death as the country’s de facto ruler.