REPORT: The Arab Spring reflects negatively on the Saudi-British relations

The British newspaper the Guardian said that there is tension between Kingdom Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom knowing that UK did not support the Arab Spring in some countries.       

The issue evolved after the Foreign Affairs Committee in the British House of Representatives knew that the British Government did not boycott the Formula 1 race in Bahrain despite the fact that it has partially boycotted the European Football Championship in Ukraine for the same reasons.               

The Guardian mentioned that Saudi officials assured to BBC that their country considered that the parliamentary decision to question the British relations with each of KSA and Bahrain is an insult prompting the Saudi ambassador to London, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al-Saud to warn that Riyadh would not accept any external interference in the work of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates as well as Oman.            

Within this framework, a campaign was raised in various regions of the United Arab Emirates calling for rejecting all British good considering that the UK supports opposition groups close to the Muslim Brotherhood.                         

It is worth mentioning that the British exports to Gulf Cooperation Council countries reached 17 billion pounds in 2011 and the current tension does not only threatens this trade, but also threatens thousands of British workers in the Gulf countries.


For the full LBCI report, please click on the VIDEO above.