West not concerned about Bahraini, Saudi HR records: Analyst

The West is more concerned about selling arms to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia than the two countries’ appalling human rights records, an analyst tells Press TV.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV on Saturday, Chris Bambery stated that when Western statesmen visit Saudi Arabia, they maintain silence about the country’s human rights records.

“They (Western statesmen) go to Saudi Arabia to sell their arms, to do contracts. They are not there concerned about Saudis’ human rights record, let alone in Bahrain. So, really it’s not on the agenda,” he noted.

Bambery, a leading member of the Scotland-based International Socialist Group, further asserted that US President Barack Obama apparently did not mention a word about Bahrain during his visit to Saudi Arabia in late March.

“Obama will not be making any speeches about the human rights situation in Bahrain…. The contrast is that Obama is saying we’re committed to staying in Bahrain, and yet the regime, an autocracy, undemocratic [regime] with a disgusting human rights record is still killing its own people,” he noted.

Bambery added, “It is a story that could be shouted from the rooftops, but it’s not. And the reason for that is essentially not so much the importance of Bahrain and the Al Khalifas to the West, although not unimportant, but in particular the importance of Saudi Arabia, who of course has been crucial to suppressing the Bahrain revolution and maintaining the repression inside that [country].”

The uprising in Bahrain started in mid-February 2011. On March 13 that year, forces from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were dispatched to the country at Manama’s request to help quell the nationwide protests.

Last month, Amnesty International denounced the “relentless repression” of anti-regime protesters in the tiny Persian Gulf country, blaming Bahraini security forces for their repeated use of “excessive force to quash anti-government protests.”