Friday 30 November 2018

Don’t Punish America for Saudi Arabia’s Crimes - Bloomberg

Don’t Punish America for Saudi Arabia’s Crimes - Bloomberg:

If you want to understand why the Senate voted this week to move forward with a resolution ending U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, read the speech that Bob Corker delivered from the Senate floor on Wednesday.

The outgoing chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has long been an ally of Saudi Arabia in Washington. And yet Corker voted to move the Yemen resolution out of his committee. Mind you, he didn’t say he would be supporting it when it comes to the floor for a vote. Rather, he was sending a message to the Trump administration to come down harder on Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Corker was disappointed by the briefing he and his colleagues received from Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Some of this is about procedure: Many senators wanted a briefing about Khashoggi from CIA director Gina Haspel. Some of this is about style: Many senators were infuriated by President Donald Trump’s statement on the crown prince’s unknowable culpability in the murder. Both objections beg the question: What does any of this have to do with Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen?

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