US treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has held talks with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in Riyadh, despite growing concern over the Saudis’ role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Jamal Khashoggi was a staunch critic of the Saudi royal family and was reportedly murdered in the Saudi Arabian..
US treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has held talks with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in Riyadh, despite growing concern over the Saudis’ role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Jamal Khashoggi was a staunch critic of the Saudi royal family and was murdered in the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Istanbul last week.
Background
Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist who was a permanent resident of the United States and a columnist at the Washington Post, was killed at the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on 2 October. He was a vocal, but not extreme, critic of Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and his “oppressive regime”. The Saudi government denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s death for two weeks into the investigation, before finally admitting he was killed by several high-ranking officials in the embassy in an alleged fist fight. Turkish officials claim they have evidence he was dismembered and tortured before being murdered.
Since the 2017 Qatar diplomatic crisis, when most of the Middle East blockaded Qatar over its contrarian stances, relations between Saudi and Turkey have soured. Turkey sided with Qatar in a mutually beneficial relationship, and grew increasingly hostile to Saudi Arabia. Turkey has suffered an economic and financial crisis throughout 2018, characterised by the Turkish lira’s value plummeting, high inflation, rising borrowing costs, and rising loan defaults.
Saudi Arabia is the world’s top oil producer and exporter and its economy is petroleum-based. Oil actually accounts for 90% of the country’s exports and nearly 75% government revenues. In 2014, a global fall in oil prices caused the Saudi economy to deteriorate, but this has not yet affected their wealth or influence in the region.
Analysis
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met Mohammed bin Salman on Monday. Turkish officials say Mr. Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul after a visit on 2 October. Riyadh has given conflicting accounts of Mr.Khashoggi’s fate. It now blames a “rogue operation” for the murder.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he will reveal the “naked truth” of the matter in Parliament on Tuesday. Saudi officials initially said Mr. Khashoggi had left the consulate on the same day he visited it. Last Friday they admitted for the first time that he was dead, but said he had been killed in a “fist fight”. A few days later, on Monday, Saudi Arabia acknowledged that Mr. Khashoggi had been murdered, but said the Saudi leadership had not been aware of the “rogue operation”.
“We are determined to find out all the facts and we are determined to punish those who are responsible for this murder,” Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Fox News. “The individuals who did this, did this outside the scope of their authority,” he added. “There obviously was a tremendous mistake made, and what compounded the mistake was the attempt to try to cover up.” He said that Saudi Arabia did not know where the body was. The Saudis say they have arrested 18 people, sacked two aides of Mohammed bin Salman and have set up a body, under his leadership, to reform the intelligence agency over the killing.
The meeting in the Saudi capital was held behind closed doors. A Treasury Department spokesman said Mr. Mnuchin and the crown prince had discussed economic and counter-terrorism issues, and Mr. Khashoggi’s death. Saudi state media reported that they had stressed “the importance of the Saudi-US strategic partnership”.
The talks were held despite the fact that Mr. Mnuchin – like a number of other Western politicians and businessmen – had pulled out of a major investment forum being held in the Saudi capital this week. Many world leaders have condemned the murdered and demanded a full investigation. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would halt arms exports to Saudi Arabia if the killing is not “cleared up”, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau threatened to cancel a multi-billion-dollar defence contract.
Meanwhile, a website for a high-profile Saudi Arabia summit was attacked by hackers. The website of the much-publicised “Davos in the desert” summit was defaced. Pictures circulating on Twitter showed the Future Investment Initiative website with a mocked-up photo of the country’s ruler about to execute Jamal Khashoggi. The website was later functioning normally after being inaccessible for at least six hours. The summit has seen a series of high-profile dropouts amid allegations the country was behind Khashoggi’s killing.
Assessment
Our assessment is that the Trump administration has been measuring their responses to the Khashoggi incident because of several geopolitical factors. President Trump has steered away from ordering a severe response to alleged killing of the Saudi journalist. We believe that the US is not acting tough on Riyadh as they see the Saudi state as an indispensable counter-weight to Iran and a bulwark against expanding Russian/Chinese influence in the region.
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