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G7 should feature stronger focus on Middle East, Saudi ambassador to Canada says
This week's G7 summit should focus more strongly on the crisis in Gaza and the continuing conflict between Israel and Iran, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Canada says.
'The most important issue that concerns the region in Saudi Arabia is unfortunately not on the list for the topics they are going to talk about,' Amal Yahya Almoalimi said about the gathering of world leaders in a Monday interview with The Globe and Mail.
Energy and economic issues are important, she said, but other concerns are preoccupying the attention of people around the world.
'What I hope for from the G7 is to try to make the world a better place for people, for those who are suffering from hunger, from war, from poverty, from pollution, from a lot of issues,' she said.
Ms. Almoalimi said Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Salman, was invited to the summit, but did not attend because of his commitment to help supervise the annual hajj Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The ambassador said the Crown Prince, who spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney at the end of May, received an invitation to the G7 'with great respect,' and really wanted to attend the meeting in Kananaskis, Alta.
Of the May 29 conversation between the Canadian and Saudi prime ministers, Ms. Almoalimi said: 'From what I've heard, it was a very good, positive conversation.'
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She responded to a question about the weekend execution of a prominent Saudi journalist.
Turki Al-Jasser was arrested in 2018, and convicted on terrorism and treason charges that activist groups say were trumped up. He was executed on Saturday, according to the official Saudi Press Agency, after the country's top court upheld the death penalty.
Asked about the case, Ms. Almoalimi said the journalist received a fair trial and any sentence in Saudi Arabia would come after being discussed by 13 judges. 'We respect the court decision,' she said.
The independent, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement that it was outraged at the execution of Mr. Al-Jasser, whom it noted was jailed because the regime believed he reported on allegations of corruption within the Saudi royal family.
Ms. Almoalimi has been the ambassador to Canada since 2023, and is in her post as Saudi Arabia and Canada are working to rebuild their relationship.
In 2018, then-foreign affairs minister Chrystia Freeland sent out a social-media posting denouncing the kingdom's human-rights record, and the imprisonment of the sister of a jailed human-rights activist.
Both countries recalled their ambassadors. Saudi Arabia also withdrew scores of students it had sponsored at Canadian postsecondary institutions.
However, the ambassadors have since been reinstated, and Ms. Almoalimi noted that Saudi students are back in Canada.
Last March, then-foreign affairs minister Mélanie Joly included a stop in Saudi Arabia on a tour of the Middle East. Ms. Joly met with her counterpart during her visit to Riyadh.
During Monday's interview at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Ottawa, the ambassador said that Canada and Saudi Arabia have resumed their relationship after what she referred to as a 'pause' that allowed both countries to get a better sense of each other.
'The core of all relations among people or among states is to show respect and to avoid interference that could be misunderstood from the other party,' she said.
'It's really important to understand how you say things and why do you say things and to whom are you saying it.'
Asked about the relevance of this view to the Canada-Saudi relationship, the ambassador said, 'Canada needed a bit to take under consideration the concerns, the values, the nature of the country and also the way of communicating.'
