'Secret Saudi Human Rights law to jail critics' Interview with Syed Ali Wasif, President of the Society for International Reforms and Research, in Washington http://www.islamtimes.org/vdch-wn6.23n-qd10t2.html

Press TV: Dr. Wasif, do you think that despite the release of this report Saudi Arabia will continue to be called an ally and a friend by the West, the US and the European Union as you just mentioned?Wasif: Yes, it will be. This is their standard. This is the criminal practice of the West, and that has been going on for the last two centuries. So how could you expect a change, an overnight change? It is impossible.The inhuman practices of the Saudi regime will continue unabated and will be backed and supported by the West unfortunately.But this is no surprise to me. The only surprising thing is the silence or the criminal silence of the Human Rights Council,

and the criminal silence of the United Nations General Assembly and the criminal silence of the office of the Human Rights Commissioner of the United Nations. They are not taking any action against such a report.This is a human rights violation to an extent that it goes beyond the criminal procedures of international laws, beyond the accepted norms.Press TV: Clearly, the introduction of this law goes to show how worried the government is about the uprisings and revolutions taking place in its own backyard,

and even within its borders recently. Will this measure be enough to stifle any challenge and opposition to the authority of the Saudi regime?Wasif: In the short term, yes. It will help Saudi Arabia to consolidate its despotic regime. But in the longer run, it is going to be the Saudi regime which is going to be the loser because it will be facing, sooner or later, international condemnation and international political pressure and pressure from within the royal family and the people of Saudi Arabia, who are trying to get rid of this despotic, dictatorial, Salafists regime.