RUNNING a human-rights-oriented foreign policy is a challenge, even for the Swedes. In October Sweden became the first Western government to recognise the state of Palestine. Margot Wallstrom, the foreign minister, was duly invited to address a meeting of the Arab League on March 9th. Ms Wallstrom wrote a rather anodyne speech exhorting the member states to live up to their commitments on human rights, particularly women’s rights. Saudi Arabia objected, and the league blocked her from speaking. Now Sweden’s relations with much of the Arab world are in shambles.

The speech was not the only trigger for the falling-out. On March 10th the Swedish government said it would revoke a weapons export agreement with Saudi Arabia that had been in place since 2005. Stefan Lofven, the Social Democrat prime minister, had been under pressure from his coalition partners in the Green Party to end the agreement, but the timing could not have been worse. The same day, the Saudis recalled their ambassador to Stockholm, and the Arab League publicly condemned Ms Wallstrom’s cancelled speech, calling it an offence to Saudi Arabia and to Islam. In the following weeks, the United Arab Emirates recalled its ambassador, and Saudi Arabia said it would neither issue new business visas to Swedes nor renew the visas of those living in the kingdom.

The standoff has serious consequences for Swedish business. Exports to Saudi Arabia came to 11.2 billion kroner ($1.3 billion) last year, 1% of Sweden’s total. A group of 31 Swedish business leaders pleaded with the government to calm the tensions in an op-ed article in the Dagens Nyheter, a newspaper; they followed up with a meeting with Ms Wallstrom and with Mikael Damberg, minister for enterprise and innovation. On March 20th Ms Wallstrom backpedalled, saying her intention was never to criticise Islam and that the government wants better relations with Saudi Arabia. But she could not resist adding that “Sweden has a tradition of plain speaking about democracy and human rights, worldwide and in every type of country.”

While advocating human rights has lost Sweden friends among Arab states, recognising Palestine has soured relations with Israel. In January Ms Wallstrom cancelled an official visit after Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, said she was not welcome. Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, claimed “Scandinavian governments” were trying to topple him during his recent election campaign.

The Swedes can at least count on the friendship of the Palestinians, to whom they have promised $177m in aid. But Stockholm is campaigning for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council in 2017, and needs the support of two-thirds of the UN General Assembly. Ms Wallstrom had hoped to win the votes of the 22-member Arab League. That no longer looks likely. Sweden’s rivals for the seat include Italy and the Netherlands, neither of which has been so undiplomatic as to respond to an Arab League invitation with a lecture about human rights.