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WASHINGTON – President Trump on Tuesday condemned the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia, calling it "the worst concealment ever suffered," and his government warned for the first time that it would impose human rights sanctions to some of its participants in the plot.
Trump's criticism and the sanctions announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attest to the growing pressure on the White House after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the murder of Mr. Khashoggi in the consulate of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul of "wild premeditation."
But the president still seemed to be trying to buy time, complaining about how the Saudis missed the crime rather than who was behind, and put on the list of people likely to be Saudi agents rather than decision makers such as Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.
"They had a very bad original concept, it was poorly executed and the concealment was one of the worst in the history of concealment," Trump told reporters from the Oval Office.
"Very simple," he continued, "Bad business; should never have been thought of. Someone really messed up. And they had the worst coverage of all time. And where that should have stopped, it's from the point of view of the transaction.
"Those who have had this idea, I think, have big problems and they should do it," said Trump about the operation inside the Saudi Arabian consulate, during which, according to Turkish officials, Mr. Khashoggi was killed and dismembered. with a bone saw.
The State Department announced that the United States would revoke visas or blacklist them on 21 Saudi visas that they identified as being involved in the operation. The department refused to divulge the names of the people punished, but Mr. Pompeo said at a press conference that the United States had identified suspects as coming from the royal court, intelligence services, the ministry Foreign Affairs and other ministries.
Among the 21 people are probably the 15 members identified by Turkey as suspects, as well as officials in Saudi Arabia who were removed from office on Friday. Some are close to Prince Mohammed.
The United States could take additional measures under the Magnitsky law, which is named after a Russian tax lawyer and accountant, Sergei Magnitsky, who allows the United States to freeze their assets and ban the movement of persons found guilty of human rights abuses.
"These sanctions will not be the last word of the United States," Pompeo told reporters on Tuesday at the state department. "We say very clearly that the United States does not tolerate this kind of ruthless action aimed at silencing journalist Mr. Khashoggi through violence."
Neither Mr. Pompeo nor Mr. Trump would say that they believe that Prince Mohammed is responsible for the murder. Mr Trump said he would reserve the final judgment until US officials, including the ICA director, Gina Haspel, returned from Turkey in the coming days.
He repeated much the same thing last week after Mr. Pompeo made a study trip to Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Pompeo said Tuesday that the United States continues to seek information from other sources, including Turkish intelligence services and Saudis.
"Neither the president nor I are satisfied with this situation," he said, adding, however: "Our common strategic interests with Saudi Arabia remain."
"We will work with Congress," said Pompeo. "I've talked to our allies around the world. We want to make sure everyone understands that the United States does not believe that – that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was – was anything but a horrible act.
This month, 22 senators sent a bipartisan letter to Mr. Trump asking the executive to study the possibility of using the Magnitsky law to impose economic sanctions on officials involved in the disappearance and the death of Mr. Khashoggi, including the highest officials. in Saudi Arabia.
Some members of Congress also called on Trump to end US support for the Yemeni civil war, where a Saudi-led coalition conducted air strikes that killed dozens of civilians , including children.
The president reaffirmed that Congress should take the initiative to impose sanctions on the Saudis, while reminding legislators to remember the multi-billion dollar arms sales and other trade links that unite Saudi Arabia and the United States.
"As far as what we are ultimately doing," said Mr. Trump, "I'm going to leave it a lot – jointly with me – until Congress."
As he has already done, Mr. Trump spoke of the need to protect an agreement in which Saudi Arabia would have bought $ 110 billion worth of weapons and made a total of $ 450 billion. investments in the United States – which he claimed to be the fruit of his alliance. with the kingdom. But experts have noted that the figure of $ 110 billion is exaggerated while the figure of $ 450 billion is fanciful.
Defense analysts have calculated only $ 14.5 billion in recorded arms sales, and the actual number could actually be less than that. The Saudis have not signed any major new contracts since Trump took office, according to Bruce O. Riedel, senior researcher at the Brookings Institution and a student since 1978.
The Saudis, he said, announced a huge deal: a $ 15 billion deal with Lockheed Martin for the purchase of a Thaad missile defense system. But the Saudi Defense Ministry let the September deadline expire, leaving the future uncertain for the deal.
Analysts said there was no data to justify the $ 450 billion investment requested by Trump. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund has invested heavily in the Uber mobile phone service; Blackstone Private Equity; and the SoftBank Technology Fund. But together, these investments represent a fraction of the $ 450 billion claimed by Trump.
As in the past, the president warned that if tensions with Saudi Arabia jeopardized arms sales, the Saudis could turn to Russia, China or France. Riedel said the United States held the leverage because of Saudi Arabia's need for American-made spare parts to continue its war in Yemen.
"You can not take a Russian radar system and put it on a Saudi F-15," Riedel said.
