US Senators on Monday left a closed-door briefing with officials of the administration of US President Donald Trump deeply frustrated by the lack of new information on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, with some raising the prospect of placing new sanctions on the Saudi Arabian government.
Lawmakers had instructed Trump to order an investigation into Khashoggi’s killing by invoking the Global Magnitsky Act.
The request was made in October last year, which gave the president 120 days to respond, but the White House declined to submit a report by the deadline, angering members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
US Senator Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the panel, called the briefing “a farce” and said Trump still needs to give US Congress an answer.
“The law’s very clear, there needed to be a determination,” Menendez said.
US Senator Chris Murphy said the briefing contained “zero” new information. He criticized the lack of an intelligence official among the briefers, a move he described as “purposeful.”
“They don’t want us to have a conversation about the intelligence,” he said, referring to the White House. “These folks had no new information and were not permitted to give us any new information.”
Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist, was killed in a Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul last year by Saudi Arabian agents. The Saudi Arabian government said the slaying was carried out by rogue operatives and denied Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had any involvement.
US lawmakers have said they believe the Saudi Arabian crown prince ordered the killing, but Trump has been reluctant to place blame.
Absent a determination from Trump, Menendez said the US Senate has to do something “unless it is willing to accept the death of a US resident, a journalist.”
“The Senate will have to decide if it’s going to impose its own sanctions,” said US Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican member of the committee.
The dispute over Khashoggi’s death comes at a point of rising tensions between the White House and US Congress over the US-Saudi Arabian relationship, fueled in part by the Trump administration’s involvement in Yemen’s civil war.
With US weapons and logistical support, Saudi Arabia is fighting a protracted war in the nation, creating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
After Khashoggi’s death last year, the US Senate passed a resolution with an overwhelming majority calling for the US to end its support for the Yemen campaign, though that resolution did not pass the US House of Representatives.
The US Senate is expected to take up the issue again in the coming weeks, reviving the debate.
While it is unclear if the Yemen resolution can again pass the US Senate, members of both parties made it clear they are not moving on from Khashoggi.
US Senator Jim Risch, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a statement pledging the investigation would continue.
“We will not let it go,” he said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was