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South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Saudi Arabia “can’t fight out of a paper bag” when confronted with Middle East Challenges including Iran, during an interview with Fox News on December 9th.
He insisted that the US has the necessary leverage to punish the Saudi leadership and namely Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
“Let me put it this way — I want to be very blunt with you. If it weren’t for the United States they’d be speaking Farsi in about a week in Saudi Arabia,” Graham said.
Lindsey Graham was one of the eight senators who sat at the briefing of CIA Director Gina Haspel on December 4th.
Following the briefing, Graham said that there is “zero chance” that MbS was not involved in the Khashoggi killing.
“There’s not a smoking gun. There’s a smoking saw,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham
On December 9th, Graham elaborated further on what went on in the briefing.
“It’s the most brilliant briefing I’ve ever received in my time in Congress,” Graham said. “You had two analysts that walk us through the crown prince’s focus on Mr. Khashoggi for about two years. This operation was very sophisticated. The person in charge of executing the operation is MBS’s right-hand man. There is no doubt by any senator who received this briefing that MBS was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he believes if the crown prince were put on trial, a jury would find him guilty in “about 30 minutes.”
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, also confirmed Graham’s words on CNN’s State of the Union on December 9th.
“We don’t need direct evidence that he ordered the code red on this thing. The bottom line is that there is no way that 17 people close to him got a charter plane, flew to a third country, went into a consulate, killed and chopped up a man, and flew back, and he didn’t know about it, much less order it.”
The US imposed a slew of sanctions against the individuals who US intelligence has determined were involved in the murder.
But the White House has voiced fears that taking more aggressive action against Saudi Arabia might unnecessarily compromise U.S. strategic interests, as well as arms deals worth more than $100 billion. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis have also expressed their concern against angering Saudi Arabia, because it appears to be against US National Security interests.
However, Lindsey Graham had the following to say regarding the fears:
“They give us 9 percent of our oil imports. We need them a lot less than they need us. I don’t buy this idea you’ve got to hook up to a murderous regime, a thug like MBS, to protect America from Iran. Quite the opposite. I think by hooking up with him we hurt our ability to govern the region.”
Graham further claimed that MbS is targeting others too:
“It’s not just this dissident he’s going after. He’s going after others, people have been captured in other countries and brought back to Saudi Arabia because they’ve been critics in these countries. He put the Lebanese prime minister under house arrest in the most bizarre episode I’ve seen in 20 years and it goes on and on and on.”
He further claimed that the Crown Prince’s aim is to sever US and Saudi Arabia ties, calling him a “wrecking ball” and “crazy.”
“Well, we’re going to label him complicit. We’re going to have a vote in the Senate saying that MBS was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. I’m never gonna support any more arms sales to Saudi Arabia.”
His final words refer to a bipartisan push for a resolution calling MbS “complicit” in the Khashoggi killing. Graham introduced the measure.
McClatchy.dc published an article calling the agreement between Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham “the End Times.”
The two senators who were always opposed in terms of foreign policy, appear to be of the same mind regarding Saudi Arabia.
“It’s a sign that this president’s foreign policy has gone badly askew when Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham are generally in agreement,” said Sen. Chris Murphy.
The vote on the bill that would ban US arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which Graham and Paul are both supporters of will more than unlikely not be up for vote in Congress before the end of 2018.
