Trump’s Middle East trip dodges human rights concerns

Washington (AP) – Saudi royalty And American billionaires were in the front row for a speech in Riyadh where President Donald Trump condemned what he called interference after us in the rich Gulf states.

It was over time when US officials would go to the Middle East to give “your lectures on how to live and how to govern your own things,” Trump said at a Saudi investment forum this week.

No one in the audience is more close or listened to more carefully, than the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin salman.

The ordinary Arabs also listened to, including Saudi journalists, defenders of rights, businessmen, writers and others who had fled the kingdom. Their fear: Trump’s words highlighted a message that the United States retired from its longtime role as an imperfect, sporadic but powerful defender human rights in the world.

“It was painful to see,” said Abdullah Alaoudh, whose 68 -year -old father, a Saudi clerk with a large audience, was one of the hundreds of royals, personalities from civil society, defenders of rights and others imprisoned by Prince Mohammed in the first years of his de facto rise.

Saudi Arabia has since released many of these people in what groups say that the improved human rights file of the Crown Prince followed Past international reviews and isolations. But Abdullah’s father, Salman Alaoudh, is among the many still behind bars.

Trump spoke directly to the prince – “the person who tortured my father, who forbade my family,” left the kingdom, said Abdullah, who pleads for people detained and imprisoned in Saudi Arabia in the United States.

The Saudi Embassy did not immediately respond to messages asking for comments.

A spokesperson for the White House, Anna Kelly, said that Trump’s speech “celebrated the constantly increasing partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia” and a Middle East working towards peace. Kelly did not answer the question of whether the president had raised human rights problems with the Gulf leaders.

A spokesperson for the State Department, Tommy Pigott, called Trump’s discussions with the leaders of the Gulf Private.

Less attention than usual on human rights

Trump’s first big trip of his second term – also including Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – attracted much less attention to human rights than typical American visits to autocratic countries With unequal files on freedom of expression, fair trials and other rights.

Human rights groups have displayed concerns about the Gulf countries, but some abstained more vocal objections. In the United States, Saudi exiles have also ignored the usual sharp comments on social networks. And the administration was faced with some of the typical questions that a visit president had used the trip to put pressure on the release of detained Americans or imprisoned activists.

This is due in part to improving human rights in Saudi Arabia, according to groups. But silence also reflects what certain organizations call an image of worsening human rights in the United States.

Ibrahim Almadi, a man from Florida to research We help bring his father back home Since Saudi Arabia, he said that he had tried in vain to mark a commitment from a republican legislator or another civil servant to exhort Trump to raise the cause of his father. His Saudi, Saudi father, Saad Almadi, 75, had been imprisoned for critical tweets About the Saudi government and is now under a ban on leaving the country.

“It’s a romantic relationship between Trump and MBS,” said the son. A mention of the case to Trump, then a comment from Trump to the Saudi Crown Prince, and “I’m going to get my father.”

Some voices have become silent

Some Saudis who fled to the United States say they are retreating from social media and all public criticism of Saudi officials, fearing the same detentions and Deportations faced by certain immigrants And Pro-Palestinian demonstrators under the Trump administration.

Democracy in the Arab world now – the non -profit organization founded by Jamal Khashoggi, the American journalist killed in the Saudi consulate In Istanbul – advises Arabs with an unstable immigration status in the United States to be “cautious when they travel, to think about what they say,” said executive director Sarah Leah Whitson.

The American intelligence community said that the crown prince Supervision the 2018 plotWhile he denied any involvement. The murder of Khashoggi, who used his Washington Post column to urge Prince Mohammed to institute reforms, led the president of the time, Joe Biden, commit to making Saudi royals in parias.

But arrow in the United States prices in 2022 prompted Biden clumsy with the prince.

In his second mandate, Trump tightened his embrace of Prince Mohammed and other rich Gulf leaders, seeking big investments In the United States, while Trump’s eldest threads are Develop major real estate projects in the region.

The human rights file in Saudi Arabia

Burned by the initial condemnation and isolation on Khashoggi, Prince Mohammed quietly released some of those imprisoned to have sought Women’s right to driveFor critical tweets, to publicly propose changes in Saudi policy and more. The prince also liberalized legal and social conditions for women, part of a campaign to attract businesses and diversify the economy of Saudi Arabia.

But many others stay in prison. Thousands of people, including Almadi, face exit prohibitions, say the rights defense groups.

These organizations cite another reason why activists remain quieter than usual during the trip: the human rights reputation in the United States.

In addition to the deportations, Whitson stressed American military support in Israel During his 19 -month offensive against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed thousands of civilians. The Trump administration says that she is trying to get a ceasefire.

The Americans highlighting the abuses of another country “does not pass the laughter,” said Whitson. “The United States does not have the moral position, the legal position, the credibility of reprimanding another country at that time.”