President Donald Trump signs the “America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018” into law during a ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018.

President Donald Trump signs the “America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018” into law during a ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Trump to Stick with Saudi Arabia in Spite of Khashoggi Killing

The president reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to Riyadh — and said the crown prince may have known of plans to murder the U.S.-based journalist.

In an extraordinary written statement issued on Tuesday, President Trump signaled that his administration will not penalize Saudi Arabia over its alleged involvement in the murder and dismemberment of the U.S.-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi, citing the value of U.S. arms sales to Riyadh and the Kingdom’s role in Trump’s strategy to constrain Iran.

In his 3,800-word statement, Trump reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to “standing with Saudi Arabia” even though “it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of” Khashoggi’s murder.

“Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump wrote, using one of the statement’s eight exclamation marks. “That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi.

“In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Trump said that although U.S. intelligence agencies are continuing to assess the early-October murder, which took place in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, “the United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region.”

The president characterized the decision as part of his “America First!” strategy.

Saudi Arabia has offered shifting, contradictory explanations for what happened inside the embassy in Istanbul. But press accounts both in the U.S. and in Turkey have reflected a growing international consensus that Saudi Arabia’s young crown prince, 33-year-old Mohammed bin Salman, was involved in the murder at some level. The Washington Post reported this week that the CIA has concluded Prince Mohammed, or MBS, as is he is known in the West, directly ordered the killing; outside experts say it strains credulity to think he would not have been aware of the assassination.

Related: What Mattis Said in the Middle East

Related: What Really Matters in Trump’s $110B Saudi Arms Package

Related: Pentagon Is Speeding Up Arms Exports to Saudi Arabia, Other Allies

Related: Khashoggi Situation Won’t Stop Saudi Arms Sales, But Could Slow Them

Saudi Arabia strongly denies the crown prince’s involvement, the president noted in his statement. He told Fox News’ Chris Wallace this weekend that he had not listened to tapes purported to contain audio of the grisly murder.

The U.S. has taken steps to punish some of those believed to have been involved in the murder, sanctioning 17 individuals believed to have participated, but the questions of whether and how to censure MBS put the Trump administration in an uncomfortable bind. Led by the president’s son-in-law and senior White House advisor Jared Kushner, it has long embraced MBS as a key partner in its Middle East strategy. And according to the Post, CIA analysts believe the Saudi prince is in no danger of losing his status as heir to the throne.

In particular, senior officials in the administration see Saudi Arabia as a key ally in their efforts to constrain Iran — a foreign-policy priority in the region.

“We have no better partner” than Saudi Arabia in containing Iran, Special Envoy to Syria, Ambassador Jim Jeffrey said during the Defense One summit last week. “We couldn't be doing what we're doing in the region without them.”

Trump’s statement comes as the administration escalates its efforts to hem in Tehran. The U.S. earlier this month re-imposed sanctions on the Iranian regime that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal struck by President Obama; also on Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department levied fresh sanctions on Iran, accusing it of shipping oil to Syria in defiance of existing sanctions.

Trump in his statement noted that Saudi Arabia considered Khashoggi “an enemy of the state” and a member of the Islamist organization the Muslim Brotherhood — although he insisted that “my decision was in no way based on that.”

Trump also repeated the false statement that his administration had negotiated the sale of arms worth $110 billion before and during his 2017 trip to Riyadh. In fact, a number of the deals were cleared by the Obama administration. Moreover, much of that total remains prospective; actual arms exports to Saudi Arabia under Trump come to $14.5 billion.

He has also claimed at different times that between 450,000 and 1 million American jobs were at risk if the deals were canceled.

“Saudi arms sales support at most tens of thousands of jobs in the United States, not hundreds of thousands or ‘a million,’ as President Trump has claimed,” states a new Center for International Policy report written by William Hartung. “Actual, paid-for deliveries of U.S.-produced arms for Saudi Arabia have averaged about $2.5 billion per year over the past decade, enough to support at most 20,000 to 40,000 jobs, some of which are located overseas.”

Trump’s statement drew swift condemnation from critics on Capitol Hill, who saw it as as a presidential carte blanche to MBS — one that condones the murder of a journalist living on U.S. soil, undermines the U.S. commitment to human rights, and takes the word of Riyadh over the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community.

“The President’s failure to hold Saudi Arabia responsible in any meaningful way for the death of Jamal Khashoggi is just one more example of this White House’s retreat from American leadership on issues like human rights and protecting the free press,” Senate Intelligence Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a statement. “It’s hard to imagine that this type of action would have taken place under a Reagan, Bush, Clinton or Obama Administration without facing serious repercussions.”

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have expressed mounting frustrating with Riyadh and its impetuous young ruler, not only over the murder of Khashoggi but also Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the punishing war in Yemen, MBS’s signature foreign-policy initiative. Some lawmakers have called for the United States to cut off all arms sales and military support to Riyadh. (U.S. officials recently announced that the American military will no longer assist in aerial refueling in Yemen — according to the Saudi Embassy, because the kingdom is now able to handle such maneuvers by itself).

The Kingdom has long been an irritant on Capitol Hill, often across partisan lines. In 2016, lawmakers overrode President Barack Obama’s veto of a bill giving 9/11 victims the ability to sue the country; the Senate last year took up legislation to block some of the arms deals with Riyadh in a resolution that was defeated by just a handful of votes.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a fierce ally of the president, said in a statement “it is not in our national security interests to look the other way” on the killing.

“I firmly believe there will be strong bipartisan support for serious sanctions against Saudi Arabia, including appropriate members of the royal family, for this barbaric act which defied all civilized norms.  While Saudi Arabia is a strategic ally, the behavior of the Crown Prince – in multiple ways – has shown disrespect for the relationship and made him, in my view, beyond toxic,” the statement read.

But it remains unclear whether the Republican-controlled Senate will move to force any kind of retributive action on Saudi Arabia over the will of the administration. Several of the kingdom’s leading critics on the Hill — like Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn. — are poised to retire.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo backed up the president’s assertion that the United States will remain a close ally of Saudi Arabia despite the killing, calling the alliance “absolutely vital to America’s security.”

“It’s a mean, nasty world out there,” he said.

Marcus Weisgerber contributed to this report.

This article has been updated with a statement from Sen. Lindsey Graham R-S.C.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.