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By Andrew Torchia and Arshad Mohammed
DUBAI / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia on Sunday warned of threats of punishment against journalist Jamal Khashoggi for missing last week as his European and US allies exerted considerable pressure.
Khashoggi, an American resident and a Washington Post columnist criticizing Riyadh's policy, disappeared on October 2 after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul. Turkey thinks that he was murdered and his body removed. Saudi Arabia has denied this.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to "punish severely" if it turns out that Khashoggi was killed at the consulate, although he said Washington would "punish" itself if it stopped sales military in Riyadh.
"The Kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threat and any attempt to undermine it, either by threatening to impose economic sanctions, by using political pressure or by repeating false accusations," said a senior official. the Saudi press agency (SPA).
"The Kingdom also claimed that if it received any action, it would react with increased action and that its economy was playing a vital and vital role in the global economy," added the official.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington then tweeted what she called a clarification, thanking countries, including the United States, for "refraining from drawing conclusions" on this case.
Europe's largest economies – Britain, France and Germany – said on Sunday that they were treating the business with "the utmost seriousness".
"A credible investigation is needed to establish the truth about what happened and – where appropriate – to identify those responsible for Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance and ensure that they are held accountable", said the countries in a joint statement.
"We encourage joint Saudi-Turkish efforts in this regard and expect the Saudi government to provide a comprehensive and detailed response, and we have conveyed this message directly to the Saudi authorities."
The statements of the British Jeremy Hunt, the French Jean-Yves Le Drian and the Germans Heiko Maas make no mention of the potential actions that countries could undertake. Hunt later said that if Saudi Arabia proved guilty, "we had to think about the proper way to react in this situation."
WASHINGTON REACTS
US senators have called for reactions ranging from the boycott of an upcoming economic summit in Riyadh to the end of support for Saudi military operations in Yemen.
"If they attracted this man to this consulate, they went to medieval times, they were killed, he was cut to pieces and they sent a death team to kill him and do all this it would be a scandal, "Florida Senator Marco Rubio said the state of CNN Union.
"The mere fact that they are an ally of an important mission, which hinders Iran's expansion into the region, can not allow us to ignore or distance ourselves from it."
His fellow Republican from Arizona, Jeff Flake, who participated in ABC's "This Week" show, called for "harsh measures" which, he says, would affect the sale of weapons and involvement in Yemen.
The Saudi stock market fell 7% early trading on Sunday, one of the first signs of economic difficulties that Riyadh may suffer in this case. In the end, he had recovered losses, ending down 3.5% and losing $ 16.5 billion in market value.
Senators have triggered a provision of the Human Rights Liability Act around the world that requires the president to determine whether a foreign person is responsible for a blatant violation of human rights. 39; man. The law has in the past imposed visa bans and the freezing of assets to Russian officials.
Anti-Saudi sentiment in Congress could eventually push for passage of the no oil and oil cartels law, which would end sovereign immunity protecting OPEC members from prosecution American courts.
OIL PRICE WARNING
In a column published just after the SPA statement, Turki Aldakhil, chief executive of the Saudi channel Al Arabiya, warned that imposing sanctions on the world's largest oil exporter could provoke a global economic disaster.
"This would lead to the failure of Saudi Arabia to produce 7.5 million barrels." If the price of oil reaches $ 80, President Trump angry, no one should rule out that the price would reach 100 dollars, even 200 dollars, even double, "he wrote. .
Investors are increasingly worried that Khashoggi's disappearance suggests that Saudi politics has become more unpredictable under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who advocates economic and social reforms, but has also caused rising tensions between the two countries. many countries.
A Gulf banker said that the Khashoggi case, combined with other events, had become an important factor for some potential investors.
"This is cumulative – the war in Yemen, the dispute with Qatar, the tensions between Canada and Germany, the arrests of activists, they give the impression of an impulsive policy, which worries investors", said the banker.
Foreign capital is the key to Saudi projects for economic diversification and job creation. But in response to Khashoggi's demise, the media and some technology executives withdrew from the planned Riyadh investment conference next week.
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin still intends to attend, but that could change, said Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council of the White House, in "This Week."
ACCESS CONSULATE
The crisis has polarized the Saudis, some accusing the country's enemies and others concerned about the direction the country is taking under Prince Mohammed.
Saudi Arabian Minister of Gulf Affairs, Thamer al-Sabhan, said that there had been a "frantic campaign" to spread lies about the case and that it was "known" that was behind this, a wording used in the past to refer to Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Abdulrahman bin Abdullah al-Sanad, head of the body charged with overseeing the Saudi religious police, called for unity.
"To defend the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and defend it, as well as its leaders, is a religious duty and a national demand," he tweeted, without referring specifically to the Khashoggi case.
Prince Khaled al-Faisal, senior official of Saudi Arabia's ruling family and senior advisor to King Salman, met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Khashoggi's disappearance, two sources told Reuters .
A Turkish official told Reuters on Sunday that the Saudis had declared that they would allow a search of the consulate and that this would happen by the end of the weekend, although he conceded "a some flexibility on this date ".
"But Turkey is determined to enter the consulate and carry out a criminal inspection.There is no choice but to conduct this inspection.The time is important in terms of evidence," said the manager.
(Other reports by Aziz El Yaakoubi and Asma Alsharif in Dubai, Orhan Coskun in Ankara, Michael Nienaber in Berlin, Elizabeth Piper in London, Christopher Bing and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington, written by Stephen Kalin, edited by Jason Neely / Robin Pomeroy)
