Pentagon Says Saudi Ties ‘Robust’ After MbS Report
WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The Pentagon says it continues to have "robust” relations with the Saudi military, despite the revelation made in a declassified U.S. intelligence report that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MbS) ordered the murder of Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
"Right now, I know of no changes to the military-to-military relationship,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters, referring to the ties between the U.S. and Saudi militaries.
"Broadly speaking, certainly the relationship from a bilateral perspective is going to be different under this administration than it was under the last,” Kirby said, adding, "Militarily speaking, we have obligations there in Saudi Arabia. And we’re going to continue to meet those obligations.”
A declassified U.S. intelligence report last week implicated bin Salman in the murder of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi. Questions were raised about the legality of continued American military cooperation with Saudi Arabia with regard to restrictions under the U.S.’s own Leahy Law, which prohibits military interaction with human rights abusers.
Kirby said, however, that cooperation with Saudi Arabia remained — and should remain — "robust.”
"I won’t get ahead of decisions that have or haven’t been made inside the mil-to-mil relationship we have with Saudi Arabia. It remains robust as it should remain robust,” the Pentagon spokesman said.
He said the repercussions of the revelation about bin Salman "remain more of an issue for the White House and the State Department to speak to, except to say we do- when we have military relationships around the world, we certainly do make sure they comport with the law.”
The Biden administration declassified the intelligence report on Friday, assessing that "Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Khashoggi, a former advocate of the Saudi royal court who later became a critic, was killed and his body was dismembered by a hit squad inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. He had entered the premises to collect documents for his planned marriage with his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz.
The Washington Post had already reported in November that same year that the CIA had concluded the Saudi crown prince had personally ordered the murder.
The Biden administration imposed sanctions on
several Saudi individuals involved in the murder but refused to punish the crown prince, who Washington itself said had ordered the murder.
That refusal has sparked wide criticism.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday attempted to push back against criticism of the refusal to act against Muhammad by saying Washington would be watching Riyadh’s "future conduct.”
During a debate in November 2019, Biden had said the U.S. would treat Saudi Arabia like "the pariah that they are.”
Back then, Biden affirmed the crown prince’s widely-known complicity in the Khashoggi killing and said, "I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them. We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.”
But the U.S. administration is expected to take no concrete action to isolate Saudi Arabia, which is a key ally of America in the Middle East.
Group File Lawsuit Against MbS
The Paris-based press group Reporters without Borders on Monday filed a lawsuit against bin Salman and four other senior Saudi officials in Germany over the brutal Khashoggi killing and other crimes against humanity.
The group, known by its French initials RSF, submitted the 500-page complaint to the Federal Court of Justice in the German city of Karlsruhe on Monday.
It said on its website that the complaint revealed the "widespread and systematic” nature of the persecution of journalists in Saudi Arabia and "addresses 35 cases of journalists: slain Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and 34 journalists who have been jailed in Saudi Arabia” in particular.
"These journalists are the victims of unlawful killing, torture, sexual violence and coercion and forced disappearance,” said Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of Reporters without Borders, at a news conference on Tuesday.
The group has chosen to file its complaint in Germany as the European country’s laws give its courts jurisdiction over international crimes committed abroad, even without a German connection.
"The official opening of a criminal investigation in Germany into the crimes against humanity in Saudi Arabia would be a world first,” RSF Germany director Christian Mihr said on Monday. "We ask the public prosecutor general to open a situation analysis, with a view to formally launching a prosecutorial investigation and issuing arrest warrants.”
The "suspects” who were identified in the complaint are the crown prince, his close adviser Saud al-Qahtani, Ahmad Asiri, Muhammad al-Otaibi, the consul general in Istanbul at the time of the assassination, and Maher Mutreb, an intelligence officer who is accused of leading the torture of Khashoggi.
"Right now, I know of no changes to the military-to-military relationship,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters, referring to the ties between the U.S. and Saudi militaries.
"Broadly speaking, certainly the relationship from a bilateral perspective is going to be different under this administration than it was under the last,” Kirby said, adding, "Militarily speaking, we have obligations there in Saudi Arabia. And we’re going to continue to meet those obligations.”
A declassified U.S. intelligence report last week implicated bin Salman in the murder of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi. Questions were raised about the legality of continued American military cooperation with Saudi Arabia with regard to restrictions under the U.S.’s own Leahy Law, which prohibits military interaction with human rights abusers.
Kirby said, however, that cooperation with Saudi Arabia remained — and should remain — "robust.”
"I won’t get ahead of decisions that have or haven’t been made inside the mil-to-mil relationship we have with Saudi Arabia. It remains robust as it should remain robust,” the Pentagon spokesman said.
He said the repercussions of the revelation about bin Salman "remain more of an issue for the White House and the State Department to speak to, except to say we do- when we have military relationships around the world, we certainly do make sure they comport with the law.”
The Biden administration declassified the intelligence report on Friday, assessing that "Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Khashoggi, a former advocate of the Saudi royal court who later became a critic, was killed and his body was dismembered by a hit squad inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. He had entered the premises to collect documents for his planned marriage with his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz.
The Washington Post had already reported in November that same year that the CIA had concluded the Saudi crown prince had personally ordered the murder.
The Biden administration imposed sanctions on
several Saudi individuals involved in the murder but refused to punish the crown prince, who Washington itself said had ordered the murder.
That refusal has sparked wide criticism.
U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday attempted to push back against criticism of the refusal to act against Muhammad by saying Washington would be watching Riyadh’s "future conduct.”
During a debate in November 2019, Biden had said the U.S. would treat Saudi Arabia like "the pariah that they are.”
Back then, Biden affirmed the crown prince’s widely-known complicity in the Khashoggi killing and said, "I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them. We were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.”
But the U.S. administration is expected to take no concrete action to isolate Saudi Arabia, which is a key ally of America in the Middle East.
Group File Lawsuit Against MbS
The Paris-based press group Reporters without Borders on Monday filed a lawsuit against bin Salman and four other senior Saudi officials in Germany over the brutal Khashoggi killing and other crimes against humanity.
The group, known by its French initials RSF, submitted the 500-page complaint to the Federal Court of Justice in the German city of Karlsruhe on Monday.
It said on its website that the complaint revealed the "widespread and systematic” nature of the persecution of journalists in Saudi Arabia and "addresses 35 cases of journalists: slain Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and 34 journalists who have been jailed in Saudi Arabia” in particular.
"These journalists are the victims of unlawful killing, torture, sexual violence and coercion and forced disappearance,” said Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of Reporters without Borders, at a news conference on Tuesday.
The group has chosen to file its complaint in Germany as the European country’s laws give its courts jurisdiction over international crimes committed abroad, even without a German connection.
"The official opening of a criminal investigation in Germany into the crimes against humanity in Saudi Arabia would be a world first,” RSF Germany director Christian Mihr said on Monday. "We ask the public prosecutor general to open a situation analysis, with a view to formally launching a prosecutorial investigation and issuing arrest warrants.”
The "suspects” who were identified in the complaint are the crown prince, his close adviser Saud al-Qahtani, Ahmad Asiri, Muhammad al-Otaibi, the consul general in Istanbul at the time of the assassination, and Maher Mutreb, an intelligence officer who is accused of leading the torture of Khashoggi.