Will Khashoggi Death Complicate Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia?
By Debbie Gregory.
On May 20, 2017, President Trump and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud signed a series of letters of intent for Saudi Arabia to purchase arms from the United States totaling $110 billion immediately, and $350 billion over 10 years. That deal may have hit a snag.
In the wake of the murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, President Trump’s support of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has lawmakers from both parties concerned and speaking out. Khashoggi was a US resident and worked for the Washington Post.
While Saudi Arabia has maintained that neither the Crown Prince nor his father knew of the killing. Intelligence officials, lawmakers and analysts familiar with the country have said that this situation could not have taken place without, at minimum, the awareness of the Crown Prince, who controls all the country’s security services.
Of that $110 billion in arms agreed to, Lockheed Martin’s $28 billion share of the pie would be a result of furnishing warships, missile defense, tactical aircraft and helicopters for the Saudi government over the next decade.
Boeing has an agreement to develop a new joint venture aiming to localize more than 55 percent of the maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for military aircraft in Saudi Arabia.
And Raytheon had announced that it would stand up a Saudi-based division to oversee its weapon programs for the kingdom and the creation of indigenous jobs there.
But one lobbyist for a weapons company has said that worries about a potential across-the-board blockage of arms sales by Congress has surfaced.
But Khashoggi’s murder has drawn attention to the President’s business ties to Saudi Arabia, as well as the relationship between the Crown Prince and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The Trump administration’s push to sell civilian nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia is emerging as the next battleground in the struggle between the White House and Congress over U.S. policy toward Riyadh.
