(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - As Britain struggles under an economic crisis, in INfocus we talk with Jeremy Corbyn, UK Member of Parliament about the pressures of the Saudi-British relationship. Following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Q Mr. Corbyn sees a strong double standard within the UK and Middle Eastern relationship. Britain preaches democracy yet continues to arm and vocally support despotic regimes. Can you explain this?
Jeremy Corbyn Britain in a sense created, strengthened, expanded royal families. It's that history of Britain's supporting monarchy powers there in return for economic agreements; and in some cases there have been some quite brutal things that have gone on.
Take for example the coup that was arranged in Iran in 1952 to get rid of a nationalist government because the nationalist government was in favor of taking BP under public ownership - made sure that the world paid properly for the oil it was getting. The British and the Americans organized a coup; the Shah came into power; and BP was back in business big time.
Q This is an insight into why these relationships with monarchies are created and maintained by the British royal family and government and why they will be continued to be maintained come what may. What are the British interests in the Middle East region?
Jeremy Corbyn The British interest in the region is partly economic through oil, but clearly there is a defining time by which oil will actually disappear. There are therefore other issues at stake; one of which is the strategic one of what actually happens in the region and what kind of regimes develop there.
But the conundrum that is thrown into the middle of this historic process is the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948; and the support for Israel - military, economic and political support for Israel that has gone on unchanged and unstopped since 1948.
Q Why are Middle Eastern monarchies getting exactly what they want from Britain? Is Britain just trumping up these regimes so that it can survive?
Jeremy Corbyn They're frightened of the alternative because the alternative they're very unsure about.
In the case of Saudi Arabia they strongly support the House of Saud. The House of Saud in return provides vast amounts of oil for the US and Britain and an enormous arms market for BAE systems and all of the American arms companies and provides probably a lot of intelligence on alleged extremists that are allegedly threatening the West and visa versa.
Q The British government previously asked the fraud office to suspend an investigation against BAE system contracts in relation to Saudi Arabia. What's your experience about that case?
Jeremy Corbyn This arms contract was a combination of arms sales, surveillance equipment and defense systems - an enormous contract running into billions. There were allegations that BAE systems had managed to land this huge contract by a process of bribery and fraud within Saudi Arabia of particular elements of the royal family and of others that presumably had defeated other companies that were trying to get involved in the same kind of work.
The Serious Fraud Office, which is or should be completely independent of the British government, investigated for a very long period and were apparently at the point of saying we believe that serious fraud has been committed, which is an offense in British law. At that point Tony Blair intervened as prime minister and halted the SFO investigation and said it will go no further.
Clearly he had been threatened by the House of Saud and the Saudi government just saying look, this thing's got to stop otherwise there's going to be a complete change in our relationship. So, in a sense that was a confirmation of the mirror effect of international political power and economic power. Saudi Arabia was calling the shots over Britain, not the other way 'round.
Q Human Rights Watch has described Bahrain as an unfolding human rights crisis. May El-Khansa, a human rights campaigner, has brought forward a case to the International Court against the British government for arming the Bahraini police force.
What chance does this case have - is the British government likely to be brought to book or even questioned?
Jeremy Corbyn Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, UN Human Rights Council had all been made aware of issues going on in Bahrain. The British government had been informed many times of issues going on in Bahrain. I think there is a degree of complicity and I think her case is a very interesting one.
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