Alastair Grant/Associated Press
After the alleged murder of a Aaudi Arabian administration
dissident who had begun working as a writer for the Washington Post, the
Saudi government was quick to deny having ordered any such attack. And
one unlikely ally came to say the same thing: the United States
President. In typical fashion, Trump tweeted out that the Saudi Prince
had
“totally denied any knowledge of what took place,” and that there may
have been "rogue killers" - essentially the same propaganda line that
the Saudi government would soon be spreading to its people.
Often
times with statements like these, it ends up just being Trump who says
something regrettable and In a conference with Secretary of State, but
in this case, the rest of his administration seems to be taking the same
note. Mike Pompeo, Mohammed bin Salman told him that “We face our
challenges together — the past, the day of, tomorrow,” to which Pompeo
replied, “Absolutely.” Considering that this "challenge" was the
de-legitimization of a critical story about the murder of a journalist,
it may be either confusing or chilling that we are going to be facing it
together, as they said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/world/middleeast/pompeo-saudi-arabia-turkey.html
3 comments:
Trump's isolationist "America First" policy is likely directing his denial, and that comes into partial conflict within the Republican party's neoconservative based. However, there are ways for the Republicans to stand together on this issue as Pompeo seems to be doing. The usefulness of Saudi Arabia as a partner for US interests in the Middle East could be seen as worth ignoring their abuse of free speech, however hypocritical it may seem. Meanwhile Trump can claim to be putting America First by preserving not only a political ally but also a good trading partner for United States, as he has been doing. Overall, I agree that republican leaders are reluctant to speak their mind, but also that this does not entirely veer from their agenda.
I think in this case, Republican politicians are unwilling to call out Saudi Arabia because they have something to gain in terms of a US Saudi Arabia relationship. Whereas previously, Republican politicians were quick to contradict Trump's statements about Russia, now they seem to be on the same side of him regarding Saudi Arabia. This shows that they are willing to toss human rights aside to not weaken a strong diplomatic and military partnership.
The president has been reluctant to harshly condemn Saudi Arabia or take action. Saudi Arabia has historically been a vital US ally in the Middle East, there was a reason why Saudi Arabia was the first country that Trump visited when he was sworn in. Economically, Saudi Arabia does buy a ton of armaments from the US, not quite the $110 billion Trump has claimed but still a sizable amount at $3.4 billion last year. (https://www.npr.org/2018/10/15/657588534/fact-check-how-much-does-saudi-arabia-spend-on-arms-deals-with-the-u-s) But there is a troubling trend here with Trump being slow or not harsh enough on world leaders that seem to marginalize human rights (Kim Jong Un, Putin, and now MBS). However, there has also been a history of the US overlooking Saudi Arabia violating human rights in Yemen or sponsoring terrorist groups. I don't think that this recent incident will move the US to do anything, Trump can just wait it out as another inevitable revelation will dominate the news cycle in a few days, even with the international community crying foul. What could be really interesting is if Turkey, another vital US ally, forces the US to take action and how the US will respond to that.
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