Media Review: The West is Paying the Price for Instrumentalizing Human Rights and Convenience-Driven Policies

As revealed again by the West’s rhetorical support of protesters in Iran, the practice of using human rights claims to go after governments the West does not like and ignoring human rights abuses when they are done by Western-supported regimes or when done in Western countries, such a practice is very short-sighted and tends to backfire.

Case in point: for more than seventy years, the US and other

European governments provided unwavering support to the Saudi regime even when such regime banned women from driving, unleashed its morality police to beat shop owners who did not close their shops during Friday prayers, abused migrant workers, oppressed its Shia community, beheaded dissidents, launched illegal wars against its neighbors, and sent a team of 15 operatives to lure a dissident into its embassy building and dismember his body. Then, after one single decision by the Saudi regime to cut oil export just one month before midterm elections in the US and when Russia's oil is sanctioned, and the media and politicians are now gearing up to tell the world how bad the Saudi regime is. Soon, you will see more commentaries and political talking points unmasking Saudi Arabia’s “bad” human rights record. Given the context, few informed people will pay attention, and even fewer will trust the human rights claims behind which the West stands to justify its sanctions or interventions in countries run by leaders who do not follow and obey Western preferences. Here, the preeminent NYT and its top influencer is using a line from Trump’s book, They Are Laughing At Us, to promote the idea of punishing the Saudi regime.

The New York Times said that the United States and European countries "are ridiculing and ridiculing their talk about the environment, which lacks any real content."

In Europe, they pretended that they could eliminate large greenhouse gas emissions and jump straight into renewable energy, and everything would be fine. The Germans were so proud that they didn't realize that the only reason this blue dream seemed possible was because That Russian President Vladimir Putin was selling them cheap gas, which allowed them to take advantage of the difference."

On Wednesday, with the world already heading into recession and with the global oil and natural gas market already tight, OPEC+, which includes Saudi Arabia and Russia, agreed to cut production by two million barrels per day, to ensure that oil prices do not fall, rather than return to more than $100 a barrel and stay there, according to the newspaper.

And the newspaper considered, that the United States, unlike Europe, was theoretically able to meet its needs of oil and gas, but even it does not have sufficient export resources to compensate for the reduction in oil production by Russia and “OPEC +”, calling on Western countries to “stop building Air castles.

It also reported that "the only effective way to achieve the transition is to send a convincing price signal, either through energy taxes or clean energy incentives."

All statements, according to the "New York Times", "remain empty promises as long as a stable and reliable supply of energy with minimal emissions and at the lowest cost is not guaranteed."

"We boast about our virtuous goals, while Putin and bin Salman laugh as they make huge profits from energy resources," she added.

The newspaper pointed out that Putin's energy strategy "is neither crazy nor devoid of hope", but succeeded "because of two decades of failure of Western countries to think strategically in the field of energy."

And she continued, "They wanted to achieve the ends, there is a world that is no longer dependent on fossil fuels, but they did not provide the necessary means to achieve that goal in a stable manner, by maximizing their climate security, energy security and economic security at the same time."

On Friday, oil prices rose by about 2%, and prices are heading to record the largest weekly gains in about 4 months, after the “OPEC +” decision to cut production to support oil markets.

Brent crude futures rose 1.93% to $96.24 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 2.15% to $90.35% a barrel, according to trading data.

Last Wednesday, the “OPEC +” group decided to reduce the group’s production by two million barrels per day, starting next month, November 2022.

This came after a meeting held by the group, which includes oil-producing countries from the Organization of "OPEC" and outside, in Vienna to discuss oil markets and production strategy, amid fears of an economic recession in the world.