US arms makers are rattled over Saudi deals

Saudi team in Turkey for talks on missing journalist

Major US defence contractors have expressed concern to the Trump administration that lawmakers angered by the disappearance of a Saudi journalist in Turkey will block further arms deals with Saudi Arabia, a senior US official told Reuters yesterday.

Turkish reports that journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a vocal critic of Riyadh, was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and removed have hardened resistance in the US Congress to selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, already a sore point for many lawmakers concerned about the Saudi role in Yemen’s civil war.

Saudi Arabia rejects the allegations in Turkey as baseless.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was wary of halting arms sales to Riyadh because of Khashoggi as it would just shift its weapons purchases to Russia and China.

Saudi Arabia, where Trump last year announced a $110bn arms package, has been a centrepiece of his overhaul of weapons export policy in which he has gone further than any of his predecessors in acting as a weapons salesman.

However, critics say the new approach gives too much weight to business interests versus human rights concerns.

The senior US official declined to identify the companies that had contacted the administration over their Saudi arms deals.

Defence contractors did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co have been the most active US defence companies with potential sales to Saudi Arabia since Trump announced the package as part of his “Buy American” agenda to create jobs at home.

In Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike are alarmed by the disappearance

of Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote columns for the Washington Post.

He entered the consulate on Oct. 2 to collect documents for his planned marriage.

Saudi officials say Khashoggi left the building shortly afterwards, but his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, said he never re-appeared.

Even before Khashoggi’s unexplained disappearance, Democratic lawmakers had “holds” for months on at least four military equipment deals, largely because of Saudi attacks that killed Yemeni civilians.

“This makes it more likely they’ll expand holds to include systems that aren’t necessarily controversial by themselves. It’s a major concern,” the senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has welcomed a joint investigation with Turkey into the “circumstances” of the disappearance of Khashoggi, its official news agency SPA tweeted yesterday.

“Official source welcomes the response of the Republic of Turkey to the request of Saudi Arabia to form a joint team of specialists” from both countries “to investigate the circumstances of the disappearance of Saudi citizen, Jamal Khashoggi”, SPA said on Twitter.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has challenged Saudi Arabia to provide CCTV images to back up its account that Khashoggi left the consulate safely.

A Saudi delegation arrived in Turkey yesterday for talks on the case, a day after Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said a joint working group would be set up to look into Khashoggi’s disappearance.

The delegation, whose composition was not immediately clear, is expected to meet with Turkish officials in Ankara at the weekend, Turkish state media said. Business Page 1