Why does the White House criticize Iranian elections but never elections in Saudi Arabia?

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Forums › Politics › Why does the White House criticize Iranian elections but never elections in Saudi Arabia?

kingdragonfly

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#214872 1-Jun-2017 08:10

From the Washington Examiner

"The most painful 18-second news conference response you'll see all week"

"If you look closely, you can pinpoint the moment Tuesday afternoon when Acting Assistant Secretary of State Stuart Jones prayed silently for the earth to open up and swallow him whole.

It's really that bad.

Jones joined reporters Tuesday for a routine press briefing. He was asked a relatively simple question: Why does the White House criticize Iranian elections but never elections in Saudi Arabia?

Amazingly enough, Jones clearly was not prepared for it.

What followed next was a solid 18 seconds of silence as Jones raced through his mind thinking of a half-decent answer to a basic question about an apparent double standard"

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/the-most-painful-18-second-news-conference-response-youll-see-all-week/article/2624509

DarthKermit

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#1792878 1-Jun-2017 08:47

Please have a look at who the Americans are in bed with.

rb99

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#1792914 1-Jun-2017 09:30

Obviously oil and arms sales, see also Kuwait, Bahrain, etc

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” -John Kenneth Galbraith

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frankv

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#1792922 1-Jun-2017 09:36

Really? This is news?

The Americans (and plenty of others) regularly turn a blind eye to the human rights, um, discrepancies, of their lucrative trading partners.

nathan

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#1792932 1-Jun-2017 09:58

Americans revolt when their gas prices rise

Batman

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#1792951 1-Jun-2017 10:23

because:

Russia - good

Mexico - bad

Iran - bad

Saudi - good

etc

MikeAqua

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#1792952 1-Jun-2017 10:24

Because you criticise your enemies in public but not your friends.

For example the NZ govt did not make a habit of publicly criticise Tonga's monarchy, aristocracy, electoral processes and generally sub-par approach to democracy. Any criticisms made was limited, and mild despite the abuses of democracy in that kingdom.

We did provide assistance for Tonga to hold mostly democratic general election in 2010.

I'm no fan of Saudi Arabia's leaders ... but as far as I can recall they do not publicly declare policy objectives to destroy a UN member state whereas Iran's government leaders have done this repeatedly - as recently as 2016 (from memory).

Mike

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Fred99

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#1793014 1-Jun-2017 11:29

To be fair, how many "leading" NZ politicians and officials will even do a press briefing / Q&A without their spin-merchants first vetting questions? Even one on one - remember Helen Clark's reaction when what became "corngate" was sprung on her. John Key had an incredible ability to ignore questions he didn't like at press conferences, he'd just say "thanks" - look toward the exit, and confidently walk away - yet he was pretty good at ad libbing replies and deflection.

Sadly, it's often the important questions on fundamental issues which either never get to be asked - or are never directly answered.

nzkc

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#1793020 1-Jun-2017 11:37

DarthKermit:

Please have a look at who the Americans are in bed with.

100% this.

antoniosk

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#1793037 1-Jun-2017 12:21

I think there's 110bn reasons why

________

Antoniosk

nathan

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#1793055 1-Jun-2017 12:50

antoniosk:
I think there's 110bn reasons why

It's actually 300bn but they won't say what the other 190 is

tripper1000

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#1795376 6-Jun-2017 14:26

What MikeAqua said, and the reason they're friends is simply OIL (and the American made weaponry the Saudi's purchase with the oil money).

It if wasn't for oil the relationship would be far more adversarial because Saudi is the home of Islam, Osama, public beheading, funding for terrorisim in northern Thailand and funding for world wide Mosque construction etc.

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Dratsab

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#1795382 6-Jun-2017 14:54

You mean southern Thailand. Where the Islamic separatists are around the Malaysia border regions of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla which have been under martial law since 2006. There's been terrorist related trouble in Bangkok a number of times but only one up north (Chiang Mai - beautiful city!) back around 2010.