No guns for Saudis

U. S. has leverage to curb the kingdom’s abuses

Saudi Arabia has long relied on the United States for a variety of favors. The authoritarian kingdom needs for the United States to take its side in Middle Eastern conflicts, to sell it billions of dollars in fighter jets and other weapons, and to turn a blind eye to its appalling human rights abuses.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman decided last year to add another favor to the list — to ignore his regime’s premeditated murder and dismemberment of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

And though President Donald Trump initially warned that the Saudis would face serious consequences for any involvement in Mr. Khashoggi’s shocking killing, he has since lost all taste for holding the prince or his regime accountable.

Many in Congress have had enough, however. Notably, Senate Republicans joined Democrats last month to pass a resolution that would block the Trump administration’s plan to sell $ 8 billion in weapons to the Saudis.

Faced with the promise of a Trump veto on that resolution, lawmakers have introduced several dozen other measures and amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act and the Arms Export Control Act that would block the weapons sale.

This is genuine foreign policy leadership and the Trump administration — which is just the latest in a long line of American administrations happy to export arms to Saudi Arabia — should embrace it.

There has been zero justice in the Khashoggi case. The Saudis have not even admitted what happened to the man’s remains.

The United States must use the most obvious leverage it has — refusing the Saudis the benefits of a close friendship with America — to mete out what little accountability is to be had.

More than that, America must send a message to the Saudi Arabian regime and others around the world that brazen lawlessness will not come without consequences.

Even if the Saudis had not killed Mr. Khashoggi, lawmakers should consider that American weaponry ends up in the hands of Saudi- backed forces waging the brutal civil war in Yemen.

The United States must offer Saudi Arabia a reason to reform. Cutting off its supply of American arms is a good place to start.