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Trump Opposes Halting Saudi Arms Deal After Journalist Death

  US President Donald Trump warned Saturday against halting a Saudi arms deal, saying it would hurt American jobs, despite the international furore over the … Continue reading Trump Opposes Halting Saudi Arms Deal After Journalist Death


Trump Opposes Halting Saudi Arms Deal After Journalist Death
(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 8, 2018 US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before departing the White House for the G7 summit in Washington, DC. US President Donald Trump waded into the political crisis facing Chancellor Angela Merkel June 18, 2018, declaring that the German people were “turning against their leadership” over immigration. “We don’t want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!” he said in a pair of tweets. Trump’s highly intrusive comments came as Merkel was fighting to save her coalition government amid demands by her interior minister to turn back immigrants at the border. NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP
Trump Opposes Halting Saudi Arms Deal After Journalist Death
(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 8, 2018 US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before departing the White House for the G7 summit in Washington, DC. NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP

 

US President Donald Trump warned Saturday against halting a Saudi arms deal, saying it would hurt American jobs, despite the international furore over the death in the conservative kingdom’s Istanbul consulate of a dissident journalist.

“We have $450 billion, $110 billion of which is a military order, but this is equipment and various things ordered from Saudi Arabia,” Trump told reporters about an agreement to sell weapons to Riyadh.

“It’s over a million jobs; that’s not helpful for us to cancel an order like that. That hurts us far more than it hurts them,” he added, noting Riyadh could obtain the weapons from other countries like China or Russia.

“But there are other things that could be done, including sanctions.”

Saudi Arabia has admitted that critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its Istanbul consulate after a physical altercation, in a major dialling back of two weeks of denials, but the whereabouts of his body remains unclear.

Turkish officials have accused Riyadh of carrying out a state-sponsored killing and dismembering the body, which police have begun hunting for in an Istanbul forest.

Trump has said he found the explanation credible despite continued scepticism from some US lawmakers, including Republicans.

“It was a big first step. It was a good first step. But I want to get to the answer,” Trump said of Saudi’s acknowledgement that Khashoggi had died.

Trump has said that Saudi Arabia is valued as a historic customer for the US weapons industry, and that the US also relies on the kingdom in the fight against terror.

But the controversy over Khashoggi’s death has evolved into a major crisis for Crown Prince Mohammed, a Trump administration favourite widely known as MBS whose image as a modernizing Arab reformer has been gravely undermined.

AFP