Britain should not mistake its allies for friends

It would be hard to dream up a more absurd piece of political satire than an agency of the British government called Just Solutions International winning a contract to train prison officers in a country that has executed 175 people in the past year, many of them in public beheadings for offences such as sorcery, witchcraft, adultery and political activism. That it sought this contract in the first place is a sign of the great void at the heart of our foreign policy.

This week, the Justice Secretary, Michael Gove, pulled out of the deal with Saudi Arabia — thereby attracting the ire of the Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, who called him ‘naive’ for doing so. That is a word better applied to Mr Hammond. A Saudi Supreme Court ruling dating from February decrees that judges may pass down the death sentence even if an offence has not been proved beyond reasonable doubt. How could Hammond lecture other countries on human rights if Britain were to collude with this medieval penal system?

Saudi Arabia is no friend of Britain. The country not only encourages but exports the Islamic extremism we are having to confront at home and abroad. That said, no government can divorce itself from history, and our policy in the region must be based on a hard-headed assessment of the available options. Although Michael Gove is quite right to refuse to co-operate with the Saudi penal system, it is equally right that the government should continue to co-operate with the country because of our mutual defence interests. The country may not be a friend of Britain’s, but it is an ally. For all its faults, Saudi Arabia is not an aggressive, expansionist nation. Surrounded by more belligerent regimes, it is an important counterbalance against the growing aggression of Iran.