Saudi Arabia has suspended scholarships to Canada and will relocate students already there, state media said Monday, after the Kingdom cut ties with Ottawa.
Riyadh, which suspended diplomatic relations with Canada on Monday, will "stop training, scholarship and fellowship programs" there, state-run Al-Ekhbariya television reported.
Plans to relocate 7,000 students and their families in Canada to other countries, primarily the United States and Britain, were already underway, education ministry official Jassem al-Harbash said.
The kingdom early Monday gave Canada's envoy Dennis Horak 24 hours to leave the country after Riyadh slammed "interference" in its internal affairs.
More than 7,000 students from Saudi Arabia are enrolled in university programs in Canada, according to Harbash, head of the education ministry's scholarship program.
These students, 2,000 of whom are enrolled in graduate or medical school, are accompanied by more than 5,000 dependents.
