Tag: Saudi Arabia

Senate Gears Up for Unpredictable Debate on Saudi Arabia and Yemen

Sen. Christopher urphy, D-CT., is among the chief advocates for the Yemen resolution. Credit: Tom Williams, CQ Roll Call file photo

CIA Director briefed key senators on Khashoggi killing Tuesday

The Senate is gearing up for a potentially unwieldy debate over U.S. policy regarding Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and a Tuesday briefing for key senators from the CIA chief did nothing to thwart that.

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker told Roll Call Tuesday afternoon that interested parties would be meeting on Wednesday to try to find an agreement on handling the contentious Yemen resolution.

The Tennessee Republican said that with the schedule changes necessitated by the funeral of President George H.W. Bush, floor debate would most likely come up on Monday, Dec. 10.

Trump brushes aside CIA assertion that crown prince ordered killing, defends him and Saudi Arabia

President Trump responded Nov. 22 to questions about the death of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, saying, “The world is a vicious place.” (The Washington Post)

PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump on Thursday contradicted the CIA’s assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi, insisting that the agency had “feelings” but did not firmly place blame for the death.

Trump, in defiant remarks to reporters from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, defended his continued support for Mohammed in the face of a CIA assessment that the crown prince had ordered the killing.

“He denies it vehemently,” Trump said of the crown prince. He reiterated that his own conclusion was that “maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.”

View the complete November 22 article by Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

In Pardoning Saudi Arabia, Trump Gives Guidance to Autocrats

WASHINGTON — President Trump has long viewed foreign policy as a series of business deals, stripped of values and idealism. But his 633-word statement on Tuesday about the brutal killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi showed the extent to which he believes that raw, mercantilist calculations should guide the United States’ decisions about the Middle East and the wider world.

Mr. Trump made clear that he sees alliances as transactional, based on which foreign partners buy the most weapons. American jobs outweigh American values. And all countries act abhorrently, so an American president should never hold friends to different standards than enemies.

Tuesday’s message could become something of a blueprint for foreign leaders — a guide to how they might increase their standing in the eyes of the American president as well as how far they can go in crushing domestic critics without raising American ire.

View the complete November 20 article by Mark Mazzetti and Ben Hubbard on The New York Times website here.

For Trump, the relationship with Saudi Arabia is all about money

President Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman discussed arms sales at the White House on March 20. Credit: Jabin Botsford, The Washington Post

When President Trump talks about the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia, he rarely mentions any Saudi role in achieving his stated objectives in the Middle East — bringing Iran to heel, forging an Israeli-Palestinian peace, and vanquishing Islamist terrorism.

Instead, he mostly talks about how much money the Saudis are spending here.

“They give us a lot of jobs. They give us a lot of business,” Trump said Saturday when asked about the CIA’s conclusion that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi leader, had ordered the killing of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

View the November 19 article by Karen DeYoung on The Washington Post website here.

Donald Trump touts nonexistent $450 billion in Saudi orders and 1 million jobs

The death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Istanbul has drawn attention to America’s business interests in the Middle East kingdom.

President Donald Trump brought money into the picture soon after Khashoggi disappeared, and has repeated the point several times since.

In an Oct. 20 exchange with reporters, Trump called Saudi Arabia’s initial arrests and firings of top officials in the case a “good first step.” As for how the United States should respond, Trump offered a dose of realpolitik.

View the complete October 23 article by Jon Greenberg on the PolitiFact.com website here.

As Trump prepared for Riyadh visit, Saudis blocked U.S. on terrorist sanctions

The following article by Joby Warrick was posted on the Washington Post website May 20, 2017:

Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich kingdom touted by President Trump as a key ally in the fight against the Islamic State, has helped block a Trump administration proposal to impose sanctions against a Saudi branch of the terrorist group, documents show.

The plan to add the Islamic State’s Saudi affiliate to a U.N. list of terrorist groups was quietly killed two weeks ago in a bureaucratic maneuver at the U.N. Security Council, records show. U.S. officials familiar with the move said the Saudis objected to the public acknowledgment of the existence of a separate Saudi offshoot of the terrorist group inside the kingdom. Continue reading “As Trump prepared for Riyadh visit, Saudis blocked U.S. on terrorist sanctions”

The Saudi Hypocrisy Behind Trump’s Muslim Ban

The following article by Ahmed Khan was posted on the National Memo website January 31, 2017:

Ivanka Trump, DAMAC CEO Hussain Sajwani, and Donald Trump (trumpgolfdubai.com)

Last Friday, President Trump delivered on one of his most controversial campaign pledges by banning citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. He claims that the ban will protect America from terrorists. Yet, shockingly, the ban doesn’t include citizens of arguably the world’s largest exporter of “Islamic” terror—the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, home of 15 of the 9/11 hijackers and global financier of the extremist Wahhabi sect of Islam.

Why isn’t the Kingdom on the list? The reason is as simple as it is disturbing: Saudi leaders have helped the president and his friends make billions. Now, thanks to Trump, a Syrian widow and her children, running for their lives, will encounter a locked door in America — while a Saudi oil tycoon kicks back and relaxes at Trump Tower. Continue reading “The Saudi Hypocrisy Behind Trump’s Muslim Ban”