US Senator Rand Paul urges Trump to kill Saudi arms deal over Khashoggi murder

US President Donald Trump should cancel arms deals with Saudi Arabia as a punishment over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, says top Republican Senator Rand Paul.

Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote for the Washington Post, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 after being lured into the mission for some standard paperwork.

While mounting evidence released by Turkey and even the CIA point to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s role in the murder, Trump has so far resisted calls inside Washington to hold him responsible.

In an attempt to ease the criticism, the US Treasury Department imposed economic sanctions on 17 Saudis involved in the murder on Thursday.

Read More:

• US imposes sanctions on 17 Saudis over Khashoggi killing

The sanctions came after the Saudi public prosecutor announced that five officials faced a possible death sentence in the case but exonerated bin Salman, also known as MBS.

“We need to punish who ordered this, who is in charge and really the only thing they understand over there is strength,” Paul told CBS News on Sunday. “I think they will see sanctions as weakness on the part of the president and if the president wants to act strongly he should cut off the arms sale.”

Referring to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s recent trip to Riyadh to discuss the Khashoggi case as well as the ongoing Saudi-led war on Yemen, Paul said Saudi Arabia’s insistence on “bombing civilian populations” had already proven the ineffectiveness of the Trump administration’s current approach.

“Secretary Pompeo told Saudi Arabia three weeks ago to stop bombing civilian populations, since then Saudi Arabia has bombed cities 200 times,” Paul said. “They are not listening.”

During his maiden state visit, Trump went to Saudi Arabia last year where he signed a massive $110 billion arms deal with the oil-rich kingdom.

This is while Saudi Arabia and its regional allies, including the United Arab Emirates, have been using American and British weapons and intelligence to bomb Yemeni cities since March 2015, when Riyadh declared war to reinstate former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and destroy the Houthi Ansarullah Movement.

The unprovoked war has so far killed thousands of Yemeni people while destroying the impoverished country’s infrastructure. It has also led to widespread food shortages and deadly cholera breakouts.

Trump, however, has refused to throw away his profitable deal with Riyadh arguing that doing so would only push the staunch Middle East ally towards Russia.

PressTV-US would be 'punishing itself' if it halts Saudi arms sales

The US president says America would be "punishing itself" it it halts arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the suspected murder of Khashoggi.

“If they don’t buy it from us, they’re going to buy it from Russia or they’re going to buy it from China,” said the president. “Think of that, $110 billion, all they’re going to do is give it to other countries, and I think that would be very foolish.”

Major US military contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co, are among the beneficiaries of Washington’s cozy ties with Riyadh and would suffer huge losses if contracts with Saudi Arabia are suspended.

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