Many Republicans have denounced the president’s decision not to penalize the kingdom for killing Jamal Khashoggi.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 President Trump\u2019s embrace of Saudi Arabia has exposed a foreign policy rift in the Republican Party, as some of his GOP colleagues warn that not punishing the kingdom for its role in killing a U. S.-based columnist will have dangerous consequences.
Many Republicans \u2013 even Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul, who share their views on the matter with the president \u2013 have denounced Trump\u2019s decision not to levy harsher penalties on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the death and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday he was \u201castounded\u201d by Trump\u2019s statement and likened it to a press release for Saudi Arabia.
\u201cIt is a delicate situation when we have a long-term ally that we\u2019ve had for decades, but we have a crown prince that I believe ordered the killing of a journalist,\u201d Corker told Chattanooga TV station WTVC in his home state of Tennessee. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a smoking gun. Everything points to the fact that he knew about it and directed it.\u201d
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended Trump\u2019s decision, saying the U. S. has already placed sanctions on 17 Saudi officials suspected of involvement in the Oct. 2 killing of The Washington Post columnist, who had been critical of the royal family.
\u201cWe\u2019ve sanctioned 17 people \u2013 some of them very senior in the Saudi government,\u201d Pompeo said Wednesday in a radio interview with KCMO in Kansas City, Missouri. \u201cWe are going to make sure that America always stands for human rights.\u201d
Graham, R-S. C., isn\u2019t convinced. \u201cWhen we lose our moral voice, we lose our strongest asset,\u201d he said.
Members of both parties have accused Trump of ignoring U. S. intelligence that concluded, according to one U. S. official, that it was likely the crown prince ordered the killing. Several lawmakers have indicated that the U. S. has no \u201csmoking gun\u201d that proves he was responsible, but they have called on the CIA and other top intelligence agencies to publicly share what they told the president about the slaying.
In his statement Tuesday, Trump argued that punishing Saudi Arabia by \u201cfoolishly canceling\u201d Saudi arms deals worth billions of dollars to the U. S. would only benefit Russia and China. Critics, including high-ranking officials in other countries, accused Trump of ignoring human rights and giving Saudi Arabia a pass for economic reasons.
It\u2019s \u201cAmerica First,\u201d Trump said.
That unleashed a tweet Wednesday from Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii who wrote: \u201cBeing Saudi Arabia\u2019s bitch is not \u2018America First.’\u201d
Trump also said the U. S. needs Saudi Arabia\u2019s help to counter Iran in the region, fight extremism and keep oil prices steady. The U. S., Russia and the Saudis have boosted oil production in anticipation of sharply lower exports from Iran due to U. S. sanctions reinstated after Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump publicly thanked Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for plunging oil prices. However, OPEC, the cartel of oil-producing countries, could announce production cuts at its Dec. 6 meeting in Vienna, nudging prices upward.
\u201cThank you to Saudi Arabia, but let\u2019s go lower!\u201d he wrote from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he\u2019s spending Thanksgiving.
Criticism of the president will likely resume after the holiday when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill early next week.
\u201cCongressional Republicans will have to do a gut check,\u201d Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Wednesday. \u201cThe Republican Party has believed for more than 50 years that morality was one of the reasons why the United States won the Cold War. And the president walked away from that.\u201d
Some lawmakers are already fighting back. Twenty-two members of the Senate \u2013 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats \u2013have triggered investigations into Khashoggi\u2019s death and specifically whether the crown prince was responsible. The investigations were requested under provisions of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
The act requires the president to report back to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee within 120 days \u2013 in this case by Feb. 7 \u2013 on whether the crown prince was responsible for an extrajudicial killing, torture or other gross violation of internationally recognized human rights against an individual exercising freedom of expression and the administration\u2019s decision on whether sanctions are warranted.
Moreover, three Democrats and three Republicans, who say sanctions, which include a ban on travel to the U. S., imposed so far are insufficient, have introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability and Yemen Act of 2018. Among other things, the bill calls for suspending weapon sales to Saudi Arabia and imposing mandatory sanctions on all those responsible for Khashoggi\u2019s death and those blocking humanitarian access to Yemen.
Democrats going against the president is expected, but Republican outrage will be more difficult for Trump to shrug off.
Before leaving for the holiday, Paul, R-Ky., lamented to The Associated Press that Trump didn\u2019t accept the counsel he received from both him and Graham \u2013 two Republicans often at odds on foreign policy.
Graham has said the crown prince is \u201cirrational\u201d and \u201cunhinged\u201d and warns there will be strong, bipartisan support in Congress for harsher sanctions against Saudi Arabia and members of the royal family.
Paul typically eschews U. S. intervention abroad, but views Khashoggi\u2019s death as one in a long line of malign activities by Saudi Arabia topped by its war in neighboring Yemen where civilians are being killed by Saudi airstrikes.
\u201cHe\u2019s been hearing from both myself and from Lindsey Graham \u2013 two different sides of the foreign policy spectrum \u2013 and yet we get this,\u201d Paul said about Trump\u2019s statement in support of Saudi Arabia. \u201cWe really have to reconsider what we\u2019re doing.\u201d
Send questions\/comments to the editors.
< Previous<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 27<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: -2.3<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

TW posts: 2<\/div>\n

TW reposts: 0<\/div>\n

TW likes: 0<\/div>\n

TW sentiment: 0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n