WASHINGTON, 23 September 2005 — President George Bush on Wednesday waived sanctions against Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Ecuador, all of which the United States had earlier criticized as among the offenders in permitting human trafficking.
Despite periodic differences, Saudi Arabia and the United States have a tight alliance built on economic and military cooperation, and Riyadh is viewed as Washington’s closest Arab ally in the war on terrorism. The presidential determination was issued as a memorandum to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
A US Administration official told reporters that the sanctions were also waived against Kuwait and Saudi Arabia because it is in the US interest to continue democracy programs and security cooperation on the war on terrorism.
“From what I understand, the US waived the sanctions on Saudi Arabia because of changes that have taken place with the new Saudi government,” a Saudi diplomat told Arab News on background.
According to Human Rights Watch, (http://www.hrw.org/reports/1992/WR92/MEW2-02.htm) Saudi Arabia did not vote for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when it was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948.
Saudi Arabia’s stated reservations to the Universal Declaration were that its call for freedom of religion violated the precepts of Islam and that the human rights guaranteed by the Islamic law surpassed those secured by the Universal Declaration.
These two arguments were later repeated to explain Saudi refusal to sign most other human rights documents, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The only other pertinent international treaties that Saudi Arabia has adhered to are the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and thirteen (of more than 170) conventions of the International Labor Organization.
In June, the State Department in its annual report on human trafficking downgraded Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the lowest level of compliance in efforts to fight human trafficking. The Gulf allies had provided logistical support for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and have oil resources important for the United States.
At that time, the State Department listed 14 countries as failing to adequately address trafficking problems, subjecting them all to possible sanctions if they did not crack down.
Of those 14, Bush concluded that Bolivia, Jamaica, Qatar, Sudan, Togo and the United Arab Emirates had made enough improvements to avoid any cut in US aid or, in the case of countries that get no American financial assistance, the barring of their officials from cultural and educational events, said Darla Jordan, a State Department spokeswoman
