Saudi monarchy does not like British inquiry

This video says about itself:

Saudi Arabia employers ‘hammer nails’ into Sri Lankan maid

A Sri Lankan woman working as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia says she has been severely abused for complaining about being overworked.

Ariyawathi’s Saudi employers reportedly hammered 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead, which had to be removed later with surgery.

Sri Lanka’s government says it will report the incident to Saudi authorities.

Al Jazeera’s Laura Kyle reports on a case that rights organisations say is all too common in the country.

From the BBC:

15 October 2012 Last updated at 04:45 GMT

Saudis Arabia ‘insulted’ by UK inquiry

By Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent

Saudi Arabia says it is “insulted” by a parliamentary inquiry into how the UK deals with the country and Bahrain.

Saudi officials have told the BBC they are now “re-evaluating their country’s historic relations with Britain” and that “all options will be looked at”.

While they stopped short of cancelling ongoing trade deals, the move reflects growing Saudi resentment at the West’s reaction to the Arab Spring.

The Foreign Office said Saudi Arabia remained a close friend and an ally.

The Sunni-majority kingdom suspects the hand of Iran behind much of the unrest in its own Shia population and that of Bahrain.

Bahrain’s opposition movement has always denied any Iranian government role in its activities.

‘Reform supported’

In September, the British Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) announced it would be opening a wide-ranging review into the UK’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain – two key Gulf Arab partners.

That followed its report on the Arab Spring democracy movement which concluded that the government was right to “support peaceful reform efforts where possible in Bahrain” but that it “must also be clear in its public criticism of human rights violations there if it is to avoid charges of hypocrisy“.

The FAC said its new inquiry would look closely at how the UK balances its various interests in these countries in defence, trade, security, counter-terrorism and human rights.

But Saudi Arabia, long sensitive to western criticisms of its human rights record, believes the inquiry has been prompted by Shia activists from Bahrain, including those striving to overthrow the Sunni monarchy there.

The Saudi ambassador in London, Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Al-Saud told the BBC his country would “not tolerate or accept any foreign interference in the workings” of the Gulf Co-operation Council, which comprises Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE and Oman.

“Saudi Arabia’s relations with the GCC is an internal matter among the six countries and we will not tolerate or accept any foreign interference in the workings of the GCC”.

A senior Saudi official added: “The Kingdom will not permit a group of so-called human rights activists, supported and funded by foreign entities, to implant a new foreign-linked political system in a fellow GCC country.”

Specialised units

Last year, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) report into Bahrain’s unrest found no evidence of Iranian government instigation behind the unrest.

See also here.

General Electric President and CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt says his company is expanding its presence in Saudi Arabia: here.