US President Donald Trump is facing increased pressure from Congress over his handling of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance, exposing a widening rift between the White House an
Toluse Olorunnipa
October 19 2018 2:30 AM
US President Donald Trump is facing increased pressure from Congress over his handling of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance, exposing a widening rift between the White House and Capitol Hill over the US relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Republicans, including Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham, are openly voicing their discontent and threatening to sanction the Saudi government over the objections of the president, who has sought to build a closer relationship with Riyadh.
Former vice president Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast yesterday that Mr Trump “seems to have a love affair with autocrats”, criticising his posture toward Saudi leaders following the disappearance of ‘Washington Post’ columnist Mr Khashoggi.
“He’s already making excuses before the facts are known,” Mr Biden said of Mr Trump during an interview with ‘CBS This Morning’.
“It hurts us internationally. I just don’t know why this administration seems to feel the need to coddle autocrats and dictators from Putin to Kim Jong-un to… Duterte,” Biden said, referring to the leaders of Russia, North Korea and the Philippines. “I don’t understand it.”
Asked by co-host Norah O’Donnell to explain Mr Trump’s behaviour, Mr Biden said: “I don’t want to speculate on my worst fears. But either he doesn’t know what he is doing or he has an absolutely convoluted notion of what allows America to lead the world.”
The stark differences underscore that Saudi Arabia enjoys far greater respect in the Oval Office than in the Capitol. Many lawmakers harbour a distrust of the kingdom dating back to its connection to the September 11 attacks. Its bloody involvement in Yemen’s civil war and interference in Lebanese politics have cost it further US support.
The Trump administration, meanwhile – led by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner – has drawn ever closer to the Saudis as it fashions a Middle East strategy that revolves around the kingdom.
“There are a number of constituencies in Congress that are hostile to Saudi Arabia,” said Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. US lawmakers have complained about the kingdom’s egregious human rights record, its suppression of religious freedom and civilian deaths in the Yemen war.
“The Khashoggi case provides a central rallying point for all of these people to criticise the Saudis and the president’s relationship with them,” he said.
Should Congress act against Saudi Arabia despite Mr Trump’s reservations, it would mark yet another defeat in Washington for the kingdom.
Just two years ago, Congress passed legislation allowing Saudi Arabia to be sued for its involvement in the September 11 attacks. Though the Saudi government wasn’t found to have had a formal role in the attacks, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, a fact not forgotten by lawmakers or the American public.
Turkish officials have said that Mr Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul shortly after he arrived on October 2 to retrieve a document related to his wedding. A team of 15 Saudi agents arrived in Istanbul and left the same day of Mr Khashoggi’s visit, according to reports by the ‘New York Times’ and ‘Washington Post’.
The US can condemn Saudi Arabia’s conduct “without blowing up the Middle East and without destroying our ability to talk with them,” Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said on Wednesday. “Our foreign policy has to be anchored in values.”
US options include expelling Saudi diplomats, securing a United Nations resolution criticising the kingdom’s behaviour, curtailing arms sales or enacting sanctions on Saudi officials, Mr Kennedy said.
Mr Trump opposes cancelling a $110bn arms deal with the kingdom that he said on Wednesday would create 500,000 US jobs.
Mr Trump said yesterday he presumes journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead and that the US response to Saudi Arabia will likely be “very severe” but that he still wanted to get to the bottom of what exactly happened.
“It certainly looks that way to me. It’s very sad,” Mr Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One for a political trip. Asked what would be the consequences for Saudi Arabia, Mr Trump said: “Well, it’ll have to be very severe. I mean, it’s bad, bad stuff. But we’ll see what happens.”
The Trump administration has made Saudi Arabia a linchpin of its Middle East policy, which seeks to isolate Iran financially and diplomatically.
Irish Independent
John Wagner US President Donald Trump threatened to summon the military to close the US-Mexico border and upend a trade deal, expressing mounting frustration with a large caravan of migrants from…
Josie Ensor The United States would get answers on the missing Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi “by the end of the week”, Donald Trump said yesterday, as pressure mounted on the Gulf kingdom over…
Independent.ie newsdesk Donald Trump has said Saudi Arabia’s crown prince denies knowledge of what happened to a journalist who went missing after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, saying answers will be coming “shortly”.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has said Wednesday’s mass school shooting in…
Brazil’s far-right election front-runner was accused of setting up a ‘criminal network’…
Fed up with seeing wild boars trotting down streets,…
What connects Brett Kavanaugh, Pocahontas and…
European Union countries who refuse to host refugees could instead pay more for EU migration and development…
China is to launch a fake “moon” into space that it hopes will illuminate one of…
The nationalist Alternative for Germany party (AfD) has been plunged into renewed…
A coastal town in the Russian Arctic has been “besieged” by hungry polar bears that…
Worshippers at a mosque in Turkey had been praying…
US President Donald Trump threatened to…
Facebook and the Ministry of Justice have…
Sir Bob Geldof has branded world leaders…
At least 10 of those who were wounded in a deadly…
A plane carrying first lady Melania Trump was…
A student has attacked a vocational college in Crimea in a shooting…
People queue up to be the first to buy legal marijuana as Canada becomes the…
Trump made the remark in answer to questions…
Prime Minister Theresa May said she still…
Several people have lost their lives as flash…
Footage has emerged of a plane narrowly…
Emergency services continue to battle a huge fire in…
