Trump and the Saudis keep fumbling after Khashoggi's killing

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On Wednesday, nearly a month after journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and vanished, Turkish authorities made their strongest statement yet about what happened to the dissident writer.

Khashoggi was "strangled as soon as he entered the consulate," said Irfan Fidan, Istanbul's chief prosecutor, calling the act part of a Saudi team's "premeditated plans." Khashoggi's body, "after being strangled, is being destroyed by being dismembered, ounce again confirming the planning of the murder, "Fidan added.

Saud al-Mojeb, who had been dispatched to investigate Khashoggi's disappearance. Despite the kingdom of transparency and co-operation, Mojeb, according to my colleagues, neither has the location of Khashoggi's body. Turkish investigators are reportedly pursuing a theory that Khashoggi's body was dissolved in acid.

A senior Turkish official told my colleagues that "Saudi Arabian authorities have had a great deal of experience in dealing with the situation."

For weeks, Riyadh has been in a series of obfuscations, denials and delays as international anger mounted over Khashoggi's apparent death. Eventually, the Saudi government reported that Khashoggi had died in its custody. It seems to be a problem in Saudi Arabia and it would have been tried in Saudi courts. But Riyadh has yet to formally acknowledge the findings of the Turkish investigation – or publicly discloses its own.

As readers of Today's WorldView know, the Khashoggi scandal has badly damaged the reputation of Saudi Arabia and its ambitious crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been criticized in Khashoggi's columns for The Washington Post. President Trump has been a conspicuous cheerleader of the MBS – as the 33-year-old royal is often referred to – but he will eventually speak out against Riyadh's handling of the matter.

"Trump told the Washington Post last month when pressed on Saudi Arabia's shifting explanations. "Their stories are all over the place." He still wanted to defend MBS, who has reportedly struck up a personal relationship with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and has been a vocal supporter of Trump's efforts to confront Iran.

Trump also pointed to tens of trillions of dollars in the United States as a cause for disruption with Riyadh. "He's seen a person who can keep things under check," Trump said. "I mean that in a positive way." He added that MBS is "considered by the strongest person" and that "he truly loves his country."

But while the White House may be keen to back its man in Riyadh, the rest of Washington is less enthusiastic. A number of prominent lobbying firms dropped their Saudi Arabian laws in response to Khashoggi's murder, and some foreign governments attempted to punishments. Politicians in Congress, with briefing by intelligence officials on the evidence by Turkish authorities, have loudly denounced Riyadh. On Wednesday, a group of Republican senators called on the White House to scrap talks over a U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear deal.

Other lawmakers in Washington have specially trained MBS, whose take-lots-of-prisoners rule.

"Saudi Arabia's allies and customers realize the danger of crossing Prince Mohammed, who has shown the world that he can be reckless and ruthless," wrote Mohamad Bazzi, an associate professor at New York University. "Those who stay in the Prince's good luck will be rewarded, especially since he has been invited to Saudi Arabia's next king."

Yet the crisis over Khashoggi has been called MBS's own position into question. As my colleagues reported in a lengthy exposé, the crown prince reached his place of power by ruthlessly sidelining, arresting or otherwise subduing rivals within the royal family, including some princes known in Washington circles. The pressure is now on his father, the King Salman aging, to rein in his son.

"The question now is whether King Salman will decide there is wisdom in curtailing Mohammed's powers, or at least in appearing to be so," my colleagues wrote.

Of the king of the younger brothers, who had been living in the world of fear of arrest, deepened speculation over the maneuvering taking place within the palace. One hypothetical scenario would have to be compared with that of a senior relative, who would work to restore international confidence in the kingdom.

"There are going to be Americans, presumably even in the trump administration, who are going to be telling you that you have gotten to grips with this guy, and the most public way you can do that by having a senior member of the family [become] Foreign Minister, "Gregory Gause, an expert on the kingdom at Texas A & M University, said to HuffPost.

Indeed, the administration – which seemingly has given MBS carte blanche to wage a ruinous war in Yemen, trigger a regional crisis by blockading Qatar and allegedly detain the Lebanese prime minister – may be reaching its limits. This week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis called for hostilities in Yemen to end within 30 days. When it's time to go abroad, the Trump administration frequently rushes to Riyadh's defense – even after evidence has shown that a Saudi missile strike has been dropped on Yemeni schoolchildren. But after Khashoggi's murder, the mood is changing.

"It's thrown open to the doors of doubt in the whole world of Yemen," Elisabeth Kendall, a Yemen scholar at Oxford University, told The Post's Sudarsan Raghavan. "It is no longer possible to just tell the world what it wants to think about without the world being suspicious and skeptical."

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