UK’s PM defends flag tributes to Saudi King Abdullah
British Prime Minister David Cameron has defended a recent decision to fly the UK’s flag at half mast following the death of Saudi Arabia’s ruler King Abdullah, arguing the monarchy has offered intelligence that has saved British lives.
The British premier made the remarks in a Monday interview on Sky News where he was pressed about his government’s decision to lower British flags in a show of respect for the late Saudi dictator, despite initially justifying the move by pointing to close links between the royal families of the two kingdoms.
However, when further pressed by the interviewer, Cameron claimed that Saudi Arabia offered key intelligence that saved “hundreds” of British lives.
“I can tell you one time since I’ve been prime minister a piece of information that we’ve been given by that country has saved potentially hundreds of lives here in Britain,” Cameron said.
He was referring to a 2010 intelligence tip-off from the Saudis that led to the interception of a bomb hidden in a printer cartridge on a cargo plane at UK’s East Midlands airport, according to the Guardian.
Government buildings across Britain flew the union flag at half mast for 12 hours on the day King Abdullah was pronounced dead last month following an order by the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which announced it was acting according to the protocol for the death of a foreign monarch.
Both of Britain’s Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey lowered the UK flag in keeping with the government guidelines.
In the interview, when Cameron insisted that it was right to pay tribute to the late Saudi despot, the interviewer countered by asking whether the flag tribute was not “disrespectful to the people who the Saudi King has sentenced to a thousand lashes,” in reference to the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.
The tribute to King Abdullah came despite the fact that under his rule Riyadh was widely reported to be the key sponsor of terrorism across the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Iraq, which are currently being battered by the ISIL Takfiri militancy.
MFB/NT
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