Good on Canada. Justin Truduea once again proves himself one of the greatest world leaders today, especially with such a poor slate of leaders.
The tweet by the Canadian foreign ministry was really just a basic canned remark made only because the relatives of the imprisoned live in Canada. Justin Trudeau's response was equally bland. This "dispute" is almost entirely about Saudi Arabia and MBS flexing their muscles by sanctioning a Western middle power. It has almost no meaningful economic or political impact beyond increasing Saudi Arabia's international stature. Personally, I think it is amazing foreign policy on the part of MBS, as long as they don't try to get too cute.
Seems standard MBS overkill to me, to add to similar demented moves in Yemen, Qatar and Lebanon.
This isn't quite on the same level as Saudi Arabia killing thousands of Yemeni children.
Didn't say that. What I'm saying in is that MBS is prone to these big POWER MOVES (Canada said something mildly critical? CANCEL EVERYTHING! Yemen war going terribly? BOMB EVERYTHING!) that don't work except for a bit of shock and awe. He pissed off the Lebanese by blatant interference and did not dent Hezbollah in the slightest, he pretty much led Qatar into the arms of Iran and he has bogged his country further into an unwinnable conflict where they are seen as a hated aggressor.
True, I don't even like Qatar at all (they're basically mini Saudi with their Wahhabism, and the whole World Cup 2022 thing is ridiculous) but I had to side with them in that dispute.
