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Khashoggi case may affect US support for Saudi war on Yemen: Pundit

Thursday, 01 November 2018 7:22 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 01 November 2018 8:14 AM ]

Protesters gather in front the Saudi Arabian Embassy as they call for justice in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, on October 25, 2018, in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

The murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi may affect the United States’ support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen, says an academic.

“In fact this situation with Khashoggi is causing reassessment of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. We even have the Secretary of Defense [James] Mattis suggesting that there must be a ceasefire in Yemen. We know the situation there is catastrophic," James H. Fetzer, professor emeritus of the University of Minnesota Duluth, told Press TV in an interview on Thursday.

"This is truly and appropriately a worldwide catastrophe that deserves much more attention from the world than the death of a single journalist but interestingly the death of a single journalist which was quite brutal and clearly premeditated may actually lead to some relief for the Yemeni people,” he added.

“The United States would do well to take this occasion to assert some moral leadership here by not only condemning Saudi Arabia for this brutal and sadistic murder of Jamal Khashoggi but also for its ongoing efforts in Yemen,” Fetzer said.

Khashoggi – a US resident, The Washington Post columnist, and a leading critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain a document certifying he had divorced his ex-wife, but he did not leave the building.

Saudi officials originally insisted that Khashoggi had left the diplomatic mission after his paperwork was finished, but they finally admitted several days later that he had in fact been killed inside the building during "an altercation."

Khashoggi’s death has subjected the Riyadh regime and bin Salman to further scrutiny amid international outcry over the incessant bombing of impoverished Yemen since March 2015.

Some 15,000 Yemenis have so far been killed and thousands more injured as a result of the bloody campaign which has also left a record 22.2 million Yemenis in a dire need of food, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger, according to UN statistics.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary James Mattis called Tuesday for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen.