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The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Why Saudi Arabia’s Anti-Israel Condemnations Ring Hollow
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the 45th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in Kuwait city, Kuwait, Dec. 1, 2024. Photo: Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via REUTERS
In a recent statement, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia condemned Israel with some of the strongest language it could muster.
The Kingdom declared Israel guilty of “crimes of genocide against defenseless civilians,” serious violations of “international law,” and a “threat to the legitimacy of the international order.”
This is a powerful denunciation, a seemingly righteous call for global accountability. It would be a morally compelling argument, if not for the fact that a separate, almost concurrent, report reveals the very same kingdom is actually engaged in these violations. The audacity is staggering, and the hypocrisy is impossible to ignore.
The Saudi condemnation positions the kingdom as a beacon of international justice, a defender of human rights and the rule of law. It speaks of the need to deter crimes and protect civilians. But just a day later, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) published a statement that directly challenges this self-appointed moral authority.
In it, the USCIRF condemns Saudi Arabia’s execution of Jalal Labbad, a young Shia Muslim, for the crime of protesting his government’s treatment of its own citizens.
This isn’t a one-off incident. It is part of a deliberate and systemic campaign of repression that has seen a dramatic increase in the use of the death penalty. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have reported an unprecedented surge, with at least 241 people executed as of August 2025. This disturbing rate is on track to surpass the record 345 executions of 2024, a year in which Saudi Arabia carried out an average of one execution every 25 hours. This escalating violence is a direct contradiction of the “Vision 2030” promises of a modern, tolerant society.
The details of these violations paint a damning picture. The Saudi justice system relies on vaguely worded laws and a broad interpretation of ta’zir (discretionary) punishment to execute people for non-lethal offenses. A significant majority of recent executions, approximately 70% in 2025, have been for non-violent drug-related crimes. These victims are disproportionately foreign nationals who are often denied legal counsel, translators, or consular support.
In fact, a staggering 75% of drug-related executions in 2024 involved foreigners, highlighting a profound bias in the application of the law.
Furthermore, the Saudi authorities who accuse Israel of aggression are themselves systematically targeting a religious minority within their own borders.
A recent Amnesty International report highlights that the Shia community, which makes up a small fraction of the total population, accounts for a disproportionate number of “terrorism”-related executions. The mass execution of 81 men in March 2022, for example, included 41 Shia Muslims. These men were convicted on charges stemming from peaceful protest.
Similarly, Jalal Labbad, a young Shia Muslim, was arrested and tortured for participating in peaceful protests in 2011 and 2012. He was advocating for the very rights and freedoms that his government now claims to be defending for the Palestinian people. The USCIRF report also reminds the world of other cases, including those of Youssef al-Manasif and Abdullah al-Derazi, who were minors at the time of their alleged crimes but have been sentenced to death.
Beyond the numbers, the human rights abuses extend to the fundamental workings of the justice system itself.
Human rights organizations have documented a widespread and systematic use of torture to extract confessions. Methods like beatings, electric shocks, and prolonged solitary confinement are used to coerce detainees into signing documents they have not read. In a stunning miscarriage of justice, judges routinely admit these coerced confessions as the sole basis for conviction, dismissing allegations of torture without investigation. This complete denial of due process and lack of judicial precedent makes the system a tool of political control, not of justice.
The anti-Israel condemnation from the Saudi government is not a genuine defense of Palestinian rights. Instead, it is a transparent attempt to deflect global scrutiny away from its own appalling human rights record. It is a cynical political maneuver, a well-timed performance designed to distract the world from its surge in executions, its persecution of religious minorities, and its continued use of torture and sham trials. The very country that preaches about violations of international law is the one most openly flaunting it. The world should not be fooled. Its condemnation rings hollow, a testament not to its moral conviction, but to its profound hypocrisy.
Amine Ayoub, a fellow at the Middle East Forum, is a policy analyst and writer based in Morocco. Follow him on X: @amineayoubx
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Hezbollah Chief Makes Overtures to Saudi Arabia for Front Against Israel
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem delivers a speech from an unknown location, Nov. 20, 2024, in this still image from video. Photo: REUTERS TV/Al Manar TV via REUTERS.
Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem on Friday urged Saudi Arabia to turn “a new page” with the Iran-backed terrorist group and set aside past disputes to create a unified front against Israel, following years of hostility that strained Riyadh’s ties with Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states designated Shi’ite Hezbollah a terrorist organization in 2016. In recent months, Riyadh has joined Washington and Hezbollah‘s rivals within Lebanon in pressuring the Lebanese government to disarm the Islamist group, which was badly weakened by last year’s war with Israel.
In a televised address on Friday, Qassem said that regional powers should see Israel, not Hezbollah, as the main threat to the Middle East and proposed “mending relations” with Riyadh.
“We assure you that the arms of the resistance [Hezbollah] are pointed at the Israeli enemy, not Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, or any other place or entity in the world,” Qassem said.
He said dialogue would “freeze the disagreements of the past, at least in this exceptional phase, so that we can confront Israel and curb it” and said that pressuring Hezbollah “is a net gain for Israel.”
Saudi Arabia once spent billions in Lebanon, depositing funds in the central bank and helping rebuild the south after a 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel – only to see the group grow more powerful in Lebanon and the region with Iran’s help.
Relations soured sharply in 2021 when Sunni Saudi Arabia expelled the Lebanese ambassador, recalled its own envoy, and banned Lebanese imports. A statement in Saudi state media at the time said Hezbollah controlled the Lebanese state’s decision-making processes.
Hezbollah‘s then-secretary general Hassan Nasrallah called Saudi Arabia‘s crown prince Mohammad bin Salman a “terrorist” and repeatedly criticized Saudi‘s role in Yemen.
But recent months have seen seismic political shifts in the region, with Israel pummeling Hezbollah last year and killing Nasrallah, and rebels toppling the group’s Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad in December.
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UN Security Council Decides Not to Lift Iran Sanctions
Members of the UN Security Council vote against a resolution that would permanently lift UN sanctions on Iran at the UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 19, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council did not adopt a draft resolution on Friday to permanently lift sanctions on Iran, but Tehran and key European powers still have eight days to try and agree to a delay.
The 15-member UN Security Council was required to vote on the draft resolution on Friday after Britain, France, and Germany launched a 30-day process on Aug. 28 to reimpose UN sanctions, accusing Tehran of failing to abide by a 2015 deal with world powers that aimed to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran denies having any such intention.
Russia, China, Pakistan, and Algeria voted in favor of the draft text on Friday. Nine members voted against and two abstained.
The Security Council vote has now set up a week of intense diplomacy while world leaders – including Iran‘s President Masoud Pezeshkian – are in New York for the annual high-level UN General Assembly.
IRAN SAYS VOTE OUTCOME ‘WEAKENS DIPLOMACY’
“The door for diplomacy is not closed, but it will be Iran, not adversaries, who decide with whom and on what basis to engage,” Iran‘s UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani told reporters after the vote.
Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will meet with his European counterparts in New York next week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, he said, adding that Friday’s divided vote showed there was “no consensus in the council.”
“This decision weakens diplomacy and risks dangerous consequences for non-proliferation,” Iravani said.
Britain, France, and Germany have offered to delay reinstating sanctions for up to six months – to allow space for talks on a long-term deal on Tehran’s nuclear program – if Iran restores access for UN nuclear inspectors, addresses concerns about its stock of enriched uranium, and engages in talks with the United States.
“Without these most basic conditions being met, there is no clear path to a swift diplomatic solution,” Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council. “We are ready for further engagements, diplomatically, in the next week, and beyond to seek to resolve differences.”
Any delay on reimposing sanctions would require a Security Council resolution. If a deal on an extension can’t be reached by the end of Sept. 27, then all UN sanctions will be reimposed.
US REMAINS READY TO ENGAGE, ENVOY SAYS
Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea said that while the US voted “no” on Friday, it “does not impede the possibility of real diplomacy,” adding that a return of sanctions on Iran “does not preclude later removal through diplomacy.”
“More importantly, President Trump has continued to reiterate the United States’ ongoing readiness for meaningful, direct, and timebound dialogue with Iran – be it prior to the conclusion of the snapback process on Sept. 27, or after,” she told the council.
French UN Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said that since the 30-day process – known as snapback – was triggered, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain had met twice with their Iranian counterpart.
“Our hand remains outstretched to find a negotiated solution,” he told the council before the vote.
Separately, Iran‘s strategic allies Russia and China finalized a draft Security Council resolution late last month that would extend the 2015 deal for six months and urge all parties to immediately resume negotiations. But they have not yet asked for a vote.
Russia and China, which are also parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, have both rejected the Europeans’ bid to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran.
China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong said the attempt to trigger snapback was “detrimental to the diplomatic effort towards an early resumption of talks, and may even bring about catastrophic consequences that are impossible to foresee and forfeit years of diplomatic efforts in one stroke.”
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Japan Plans Not to Recognize a Palestinian State for Now, Foreign Minister Says
Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya attends the 26th ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain/Pool
Japan does not plan to recognize a Palestinian state at UN meetings this month, Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said on Friday.
But he also said that for Tokyo, which supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, it is not a matter of whether to recognize a Palestinian state, but when to recognize it.
“I’m aware voices calling for the recognition as a state are getting louder in the international community as well as in Japan,” Iwaya told a press conference.
“But the government has a responsibility to look hard into what will really lead to a two-state solution and to make diplomatic efforts towards that direction.”
A handful of US allies are preparing to recognize a Palestinian state as world leaders meet at the UN General Assembly in New York next week in the hope of putting pressure on Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and seek long-term peace.
Iwaya said Japan does not condone Israel’s unilateral action such as the expansion of its military operations in Gaza, and that Japan will respond if Israel takes further steps that would close the way to the realization of a two-state solution.
Asked if the Japanese response would include sanctions against Israeli ministers over the conflict in Gaza, Iwaya said the government will not exclude any options, including the recognition of a Palestinian state, in weighing its potential moves.