Canada warned: We’re not ‘a banana republic’

United Nations : Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister asked Canada to apologise for demanding the release of activists and stop treating the kingdom as “a banana republic” if it wanted to resolve a diplomatic dispute between the two countries. In August, Saudi Arabia froze new trade with Canada, blocked grain imports, expelled Canada’s ambassador and ordered all Saudi students home after Ottawa called for the release of activists detained. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Tuesday she hoped to meet with her Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir this week on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

“It is outrageous from our perspective that a country will sit there and lecture us and make demands ... We demand the immediate release and independence of Quebec, granting of equal rights to Canadian Indians. What on earth are you talking about?,” al-Jubeir said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Wednesday night. “You can criticise us about human rights, women’s rights ... others do and that’s your right. You can sit down and talk about it, but demand the immediate release? What are we a banana republic? Would any country accept it? No! We don’t,” al-Jubeir said.

“We don’t want to be a political football in Canada’s domestic politics. Find another ball to play with. It’s very easy to fix. Apologise and say you made a mistake,” al-Jubeir said. Freeland said on Tuesday that Ottawa would not be changing its fundamental position. Germany and Saudi Arabia agreed earlier this week to end a diplomatic dispute. The spat started last November when Germany’s foreign minister at the time, Sigmar Gabriel, condemned “adventurism” in the Middle East, comments seen as an attack on increasingly assertive Saudi policies, notably in Yemen.