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WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has introduced himself as a former army tank commander, who speaks righteously, with the moral clarity needed to face the wicked of the world. But during his quick trip to Saudi Arabia, where he met with royal leaders suspected of having participated in the disappearance of a dissident, smiling Saudi journalist, he did not seem to have the image of moral clarity or harshness. .
As he was leaving the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday, he was asked whether Saudi officials had told him whether columnist Jamal Khashoggi of the Washington Post was alive or dead.
"I do not want to talk about any of the facts," said Pompeo. "They did not want it either."
This immediately triggered a series of criticisms against the Trump administration's chief diplomat.
"The images of smiling, laughing smiling Pompeo with the Crown Prince – as if a journalist had just been murdered – are remarkable," said Shadi Hamid, Middle East Policy Specialist at the Brookings Institution, wrote on Twitter.
"Not only is it a bad policy; it's downright embarrassing, "Hamid said. "This gives Pompeo the air of a serious shambles. It's really indefensible for whatever reason.
A former US ambassador to the United Nations added to the criticism.
"The fact that the Saudis" did not want to "talk about the facts is to be expected," said Samantha Power, who served in the Obama administration. "The fact that the US representative does not want to talk about the facts is a travesty."
A few hours later, while he was returning to the United States, Mr. Pompeo criticized the fact that he had failed to hold the Saudis accountable. He stated that he wanted to "give them the space to carry out their investigations of this incident."
"It is reasonable to give them a few more days to complete the work to get it right, to make it complete and complete," said Pompeo after a brief stop in Turkey, where Mr. Khashoggi joined Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 and had not been seen since.
"That's what they said they needed," said Mr. Pompeo, "and we'll see next, and we'll evaluate that on a factual and direct basis."
He said relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia were important for the strategy. and financial reasons.
"I think it's important that everyone keep in mind that we have many important relationships – financial relations between US and Saudi companies, government relations, things we work on together around the world." said Mr. Pompeo.
Mr. Pompeo spent a little more than one day in Riyadh, where video footage showed him nodding and smiling as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke. It was a very different picture from the comfortable congressman who questioned Hillary Clinton about the 2012 attack on a diplomatic complex in Benghazi, Libya, becoming the hero of preservatives.
"His instructions are clearly to preserve US-Saudi relations at all costs," said Wendy Sherman, former senior state department official. "So, his nonverbal cues and his remarks are meant to do that."
But, she said, "he could have done away with a smile, had little discussion, said the facts were important, and the US was determined to get them and find themselves in a better place."
After Riyadh, Mr. Pompeo went to Ankara to meet Turkey's President and Foreign Minister, whose government macabre audio recording, allegedly of the murder and dismemberment of Mr. Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
A spokeswoman for the State Department said Wednesday that Mr. Pompeo had not heard the tape. Senior Saudi officials, including Prince Mohammed and King Salman, have repeatedly denied the role played in the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi.
At the White House, President Trump said he "would have a long conversation" with Mr. Pompeo about what he had learned in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
"He spent a lot of time with the Crown Prince and he will have a full report," Trump said.
He also said that "Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally for us in the Middle East. We stop Iran. "
But the growing evidence of Saudi treachery has confronted the Trump government with a serious foreign policy crisis. Saudi Arabia is a key partner in the management of the administration. efforts to isolate Iran and maintain security for Israel – while keeping gas prices low.
He also undermined the delicate balance game that Mr. Pompeo had tried to portray as a top diplomat in a notorious administration for another reason. And that comes as Mr. Pompeo seemed to strike his stride.
R. Nicholas Burns, third head of the State Department of Administration George W. Bush, described Mr. Pompeo as "a serious and resolute person" who was right to visit Saudi Arabia, considering of the crisis.
"But we have bigger interests at stake," said Burns. "We can not afford to adopt a status quo attitude. This is the moment to be harsh with Mr.B.S., to disavow the crime of his government and to punish Saudi Arabia. Our credibility as a democracy is at stake, "he added, using the prince's acronym.
Burns said the United States was clearly trying to keep its influence on Riyadh, given the diversity of common problems, including Iran, Israel and energy.
The case of Mr. Khashoggi complicates all this because Riyadh, essential partner in the fight against Iran, does not seem to offer any more positive contrast with Tehran. Saudi Arabia also oversaw a war in Yemen that became the world's worst humanitarian crisis, imprisoned militants and imposed a blockade on Qatar.
Other analysts have pointed to Mr. Trump's connection to Mr. Pompeo when the president ordered his diplomat to visit Saudi Arabia.
"The Pompeo secretary was placed in an almost impossible situation from the outset: meeting people suspected of ordering political assassination at the request of a president determined to sweep the case under the carpet, "said Rob Malley, president of the International Crisis Group and a senior adviser to the National Security Council on issues relating to the Middle East under the Obama administration.
But Mr. Malley said that Mr. Pompeo "aggravated the situation by assuming the task with seemingly good-natured good humor, which seems hardly the best way to convey seriousness or to demand a real responsibility. "
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