Trump praises ‘friend’ Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, dodges reporters’ questions regarding Jamal Khashoggi’s death
It’s not clear if any leader in Osaka has raised concerns about
the killing last October of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who had criticized
the Saudi heir in columns for The Washington Post.
US President Donald Trump, who has long been loath to scold
authoritarian leaders for human rights abuses, seemed to go out of his way at
times to shepherd Prince Mohammed.
Trump also ignored reporters’ questions about the prince’s
alleged role Khashoggi’s death.
For many he’s an international pariah, but you wouldn’t know it
by the lavish reception Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has received at
the G-20 summit this week.
He beamed as he stood front and center, sandwiched between
President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for a group
photo Friday. He exchanged an impish grin as he sat down next to Russian
President Vladimir Putin. He posed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and
a group of flag-waving kids ahead of an earlier signing ceremony for $8 billion
in deals.
Even as rebukes pile up elsewhere — a UN expert has called for
an investigation of his alleged role in the killing of a prominent journalist,
and a growing number of Americans are questioning their nation’s support for
his kingdom and its role in the war in Yemen — some leaders in Osaka have gone
out of their way to make sure the prince feels comfortable.
It’s not clear if any leader in Osaka has raised concerns about
the killing last October of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who had criticized
the Saudi heir in columns for The Washington Post. Saudi Arabia is hosting next
year’s G-20 gatherings.
This year’s summitry set a particular tone.
The high-profile gatherings can often have a club-like feel to
them, with well-dressed leaders standing around and talking — sometimes
intensely, sometimes convivially — before and after the photo-ops and public
statements. In the absence of many details about what’s happening behind closed
doors, observers are forced to spend a lot of time parsing body language. And,
at least when the cameras were rolling, that language has been overwhelmingly
positive for the prince.
In addition to standing next to Trump in the center part of the
front row for the first group photo, the prince was seated next to the summit’s
host, Abe, at the official opening ceremony.
As the prince — easily one of the tallest leaders, and striking
in his flowing, ankle-length robes — strode from meeting to meeting, or
wandered among the other leaders before the summit’s set-piece ceremonies, he
seemed completely at ease, often flashing a broad smile and exchanging
pleasantries.
Trump, who has long been loath to scold authoritarian leaders
for human rights abuses, seemed to go out of his way at times to shepherd
Prince Mohammed.
As the two sat down over breakfast Saturday, Trump praised his
“friend” for taking steps to open up the kingdom and extend freedoms to Saudi
women.
Trump also ignored reporters’ questions about the prince’s
alleged role Khashoggi’s death. A White House statement said they discussed
“Saudi Arabia’s critical role in ensuring stability in the Middle East and
global oil markets, the growing threat from Iran, increased trade and
investments between the two countries, and the importance of human rights
issues.”
The U.S. president sees a close relationship with Saudi Arabia
as a lynchpin to Washington’s Middle East strategy to counter Iran. Trump has
brushed aside Khashoggi’s killing and said it has already been investigated. A
Saudi pledge to spend billions of dollars on U.S. military equipment, Trump
said, “means something to me.”
Following a months long inquiry, Agnes Callamard, the U.N.
special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, recently
said she’d concluded that Khashoggi was a victim of a “deliberate, premeditated
execution, an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is
responsible.”
Saudi Arabia denies the 33-year-old crown prince had any
knowledge of the killing of Khashoggi. The kingdom has put on trial 11
suspects, some of whom worked directly for the prince. But his closest former
adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, who was sanctioned by the United States after the
killing, is not among those on trial.
Business concerns may have colored Prince Mohammed’s warm
welcome this week.
Take South Korea, for instance. In Seoul before the summit,
Saudi Arabia and South Korea signed 10 memorandums of understanding and
contracts that would be worth $8.3 billion, according to Seoul’s presidential
office. Moon, the president, hosted a luncheon at his mansion that was attended
by some of South Korea’s most powerful businessmen.
South Korea gets more than 70% of its crude oil from the Middle
East. Seoul is the world’s fifth largest importer of crude oil and Saudi Arabia
has been its biggest supplier. Prince Mohammed, during his meetings with Moon,
promised to help with possible fuel shortages in case of supply disruptions
caused by Middle East turmoil.
Not everyone was happy about his reception.
Some South Koreans criticized the country’s two major English
newspapers — The Korea Herald and The Korea Times — for using their front pages
Wednesday to publish identical full-page ads by S-Oil, a South Korean oil refining
company that is a subsidiary of the giant Saudi oil company Aramco. The ads
printed the national flags of Saudi Arabia and South Korea side by side and
contained the message, “We welcome HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al-Saud,
Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minster, Minister of Defense.”
There was also criticism of a massive photo of the prince
unfurled on the Seoul headquarters of S-Oil.
The worries about the abuse claims may not resonate in the G-20
meetings. But there’s mounting concern about the ties between the kingdom and
the many Western nations that have relied on its natural resources and
political position.
In a recent opinion piece in The New York Times, David Wearing,
the author of “AngloArabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain,” said strategic
bonds between Saudi Arabia and the Atlantic powers may survive, “but the
existential threats are now plain to see, and if anyone in Riyadh, Washington
or London has a serious plan to preserve the status quo, they are keeping it a
closely guarded secret.”
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