AFRICA
Trump Sided with Saudi Crown Prince on Khashoggi’s Murder
On Tuesday, President Trump announced that he supported Saudi Arabia despite the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and would not take action against the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In a strongly worded statement tilted “American First!”, Trump claimed that the U.S. would never know exactly what happened inside the Istanbul Consulate. Therefore, it was against America’s interest to jeopardize its relation with Saudi Arabia based on mere speculations.
Trump’s argument ran against the CIA’s belief that the Crown Prince was indeed responsible for Khashoggi’s brutal death. This was not the first time the president decided to ally with a foreign power against the judgment of his own intelligence agencies. Earlier this year, he sided with Vladimir Putin and denied any Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election even though the FBI reached the contrary conclusion.
“We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,” said Trump’s Tuesday statement. “In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They have been a great ally in our very important fight against Iran.”
After Khashoggi’s death on October 2nd, Saudi Arabia has been responding to the incident with incoherent and changing narratives. The government put forth a story that Khashoggi was killed by Saudi personnel who went rogue after a fistfight broke out. Just last week, Saudi officials announced that they had indicted 11 men responsible for the killing, 5 of whom faced death penalty.
The same day, the U.S. Treasury Department decided to sanction 17 Saudis involved in the case. Both governments appeared to be “pretending to do something” while refusing to condemn and punish the real perpetrator, according to Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
Despite mounting evidence of the prince’s role, some of which the president has seen during intelligence briefings, Trump indicated that U.S. economic and national security interests — especially the billions of dollars in arms purchases he said the Saudis would make — outweighed the need to establish whether Mohammed was involved and, if so, punished.
The U.S. has a number of security interests in the Middle East and is heavily dependent on Saudi Arabia to achieve its goals in the region. For instance, the U.S.-Saudi alliance is central to the promotion an Israeli-Palestinian deal. It also plays an important role in U.S. involvement in the Syrian civil war and U.S. efforts to counter Iran.
Saudi Arabia’s oil exports are especially crucial for the current U.S. administration’s boycott against Iranian oil. Trump’s sanction on Iran takes away approximately 1 million barrels from the international market every day.
“If we abandon Saudi it would be a terrible mistake,” Trump told the press. “It’s a very simple equation for me. I’m about make America great again and I’m about America first.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed Trump’s concerns. “It’s a mean, nasty world out there. The Middle East in particular,” Pompeo said. “It is the president’s obligation and indeed the State Department’s duty as well to ensure that we adopt policy that furthers America’s national security. So as the president said today, the United States will continue to have a relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif was not happy with Trump’s decision. In a tweet, Zarif called the statement “shameful” and was outraged by how Trump accused Iran of every crime he could think of.
“Perhaps we’re also responsible for the California fires, because we didn’t help rake the forests — just like the Finns do?” Zarif said sarcastically, referring to Trump’s recent comments on the California wildfires.
Featured image via Mandel Ngan/AFP