Pompeo presses Saudi crown prince for accountability in Khashoggi death
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday pressed the Saudi crown prince to hold accountable “every single person” involved in the killing of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but he reported no progress in the case that has strained U.S. relations with the desert kingdom.
“Our expectations have been clear from early on,” Mr. Pompeo said. The Saudi leadership reiterated its commitment to punishing the killers, Mr. Pompeo said, but still has to “work through a fact process.”
More than 100 days have passed since Mr. Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and many critics, journalist advocates and human rights activists have accused Riyadh of fingering a handful of scapegoats. The U.S intelligence community concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, likely ordered the killing.
But the Trump administration has made clear it values the bilateral U.S.-Saudi relationship, including lucrative arms deals, over an individual human rights case.
Mr. Pompeo met with the crown prince for about 45 minutes inside the Royal Court palace, his second such sit-down since Mr. Khashoggi’s death.
Speaking later to reporters at Riyadh’s King Khalid airport, Mr. Pompeo downplayed the harm caused to U.S.-Saudi relations by the Khashoggi case. “Our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he said. “That is the strategic partnership.”
A bipartisan bloc of congressional members has demanded the administration suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia over its abysmal human rights record and the Saudi-led, U.S.-backed war in Yemen that has killed tens of thousands of civilians and plunged the country into famine and a humanitarian crisis.