Trump calls disappearance of Khashoggi ‘a bad situation’
WASHINGTON » When the White House finally questioned Saudi Arabia about a week’s worth of reports that its agents had kidnapped, and possibly killed, a dissident Saudi journalist in Istanbul, the contact was not made with King Salman or the foreign minister.
Instead, the call Tuesday from presidential aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner and national security adviser John Bolton went to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir apparent and power behind his father’s throne.
Mohammed has been the goto Saudi since the administration took office, key to President Donald Trump’s goal of partnering with Riyadh to bring Iran to heel, achieve an Israeli-friendly peace settlement with the Palestinians and sell billions worth of U.S. weapons along the way.
But the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, has thrown a wrench in those plans. Amid increasingly loud and credible reports that Khashoggi is dead, Saudi officials have apparently refused to cooperate in a Turkish investigation or provide its U.S. ally with information.
Already, Congress has moved to take the lead. Top foreign policy lawmakers in the Senate called on Trump on Wednesday to sanction “any foreign person responsible for the violation of Mr. Khashoggi,” including the “highest-ranking officials in the Government of Saudi Arabia,” under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the United States to target specific government officials involved in human rights abuses.
The letter to Trump was signed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and ranking member Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., along with nine Republican Senators and an equal number of Democrats. The act gives the president 120 days to determine whether sanctions are warranted.
At their request, members of the House Intelligence Committee were also briefed by the administration on the Khashoggi matter. “If the horrific allegations of what occurred are accurate,” ranking member Adam Schiff, D-California, said, “this episode must dramatically recast the U.S. Saudi relationship.”
Trump, whose earlier remarks on Khashoggi had been limited to a brief expression of concern, told questioning reporters Wednesday that he was “not happy” about what he called “a bad situation.” He said the White House had spoken to Saudi Arabia at “the highest levels,” a news flash that led to the release of an official statement acknowledging the Kushner-Bolton call the day before.
“We cannot let this happen to reporters, to anyone,” Trump said, adding that the administration was also in contact with Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee, who had stood outside the consulate while he went in to pick up some paperwork and waited in vain for his return.
“We want to bring her to the White House,” he said.
The subsequent statement from White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there had also been a follow-up call to MBS, as the crown prince is widely known, from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. But Sanders provided little substantive information.