Sen Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he believes there is an appetite from both sides of the aisle to impose “serious sanctions” against Saudi Arabia, after President Trump announced that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince would not face consequences over the death of Saudi Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
“I fully realize we have to deal with bad actors and imperfect situations on the international stage,” Graham said in a statement Tuesday. “However, when we lose our moral voice, we lose our strongest asset.”
Khashoggi, an outspoken critic of the crown prince and the Saudi government, disappeared on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to receive paperwork for his upcoming wedding to his Turkish fiancee.
Trump cast doubt in a statement Tuesday on whether Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman played a role in Khashoggi’s death, despite the fact that the CIA reportedly found that Khashoggi was killed per the instructions of Prince Mohammad in an assessment.
“King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi,” Trump said. “Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”
Calling the incident a “barbaric act which defied all civilized norms,” Graham said the crown prince’s behavior “has shown disrespect for the relationship and made him, in my view, beyond toxic.”
Although Graham often backs Trump and his agenda, he said that former President Barack Obama’s administration taught him that ignoring a problem in the Middle East “seldom works out.”
“Time and time again, President Obama chose to look the other way as Iran took increasingly provocative actions. Each time, it led to even worse Iranian behavior and created even larger problems for the future. Likewise, it is not in our national security interests to look the other way when it comes to the brutal murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,” Graham said.
Saudi Arabia has offered several explanations for Khashoggi’s death — after initially claiming he left the consulate alive. The Saudi government had reportedly been seeking to convince Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia for at least a year and had offered him several jobs. But Khashoggi turned them down because he was worried he would face imprisonment or worse.
The CIA examined several audio recordings as part of their assessment, including one from the Saudi consulate that shows Khashoggi was killed shortly after he arrived at the Saudi consul general’s office. The consul general can be heard saying that Khashoggi’s body needed to be disposed of and that evidence must be cleared, the Washington Post reported on Friday.
