Missing Saudi journalist threatens Trump’s entire Middle East strategy
THE baffling disappearance of a Saudi journalist in Turkey has rocked US President Donald Trump’s entire Middle East strategy, writes Andrew Bolt.
Andrew Bolt
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SO a man walks into the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul and … vanishes. Turkish authorities say they fear he was murdered inside and smuggled out in pieces.
True? Too bizarre?
Whatever, the disappearance last week of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has rocked US President Donald Trump’s whole Middle East strategy.
Trump has made Saudi Arabia his closest ally in the Muslim Middle East — a supposedly more moderate power to balance Iran, their mutual enemy.
SAUDI JOURNALIST’S FINAL MOMENTS CAUGHT ON CCTV
TURKEY VOWS TO SEARCH SAUDI CONSULATE
He formed a strong bond with the new Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and boasted of the advanced weaponry he was selling him.
To be fair, Trump has been far from alone in thinking the Crown Prince was a tech-savvy moderniser who’d reform Saudi Arabia. Journalists praised bin Salman for allowing Saudi women to drive cars and watch sports in stadiums. He also cracked down on hard-line Islamists. But what many overlooked was that the Crown Prince was meanwhile smashing other internal critics.
He kept royals and relatives prisoner in a luxury hotel until they paid huge ransoms as punishment for “corruption”. Intellectuals, women’s activists and journalists were jailed, which forced Khashoggi to flee to exile in Turkey. Khashoggi has been one of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent journalists and editors and warned in his Washington Post columns that the Crown Prince was fooling the world.
Last Tuesday, at 1pm, he walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for an appointment to pick up documents confirming his divorce. His Turkish fiancee waited outside until after midnight and when she rang the consulate, she was told Khashoggi had left. His colleagues at the Washington Post couldn’t find him either.
Turkish police checked security cameras around the consulate and released pictures of Khashoggi going inside but say they found none of him coming out. Yasin Aktay, an adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Khashoggi might have been murdered, and 15 Saudi officials flew into Turkey on two private jets while he was in the consulate.
The Saudis deny killing or imprisoning Khashoggi and allowed Turkish police to search the consulate.
But Trump is “concerned” and with good reason.
This could destroy his close relationship with bin Salman. It’s one thing to be the ally of a reformer, but quite another to be in bed with a bloody tyrant.
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