It seems quite easy to see that the respect that was afforded America during the Trump administration, has all but evaporated since Joe Biden took office in 2021.
New reports are emerging about the interactions between the Saudi crown prince and national security advisor Jake Sullivan during a meeting last year. Sullivan made the apparent mistake of asking about a reporter that had been assassinated.
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, was not only peeved about this question, he exploded at the U.S official, likely something that wouldn’t have occurred during the Trump era.
The assassination was of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, occurring in 2018. When the prince was questioned, he shouted at Sullivan and according to reports from the Wall Street Journal, “The prince told Mr. Sullivan said he never wanted to discuss the matter again,” and that the U.S. “could forget about its request to boost oil production.”
Khashoggi, worked as a columnist for The Washington Post and was often critical of the Saudi Kingdom. He was assassinated and dismembered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
According to CIA documents reported by the WSJ, they came to the conclusion that Khashoggi had been murdered at the orders of Prince Mohammed. This goes directly against the official word from the Royal family, which was denial of any wrongdoing.
The Washington Post reported:
A team of 15 Saudi agents flew to Istanbul on government aircraft in October [2018] and killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate, where he had gone to pick up documents that he needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.
In reaching its conclusions, the CIA examined multiple sources of intelligence, including a phone call that the prince’s brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, had with Khashoggi, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence. Khalid told Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, that he should go to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the documents and gave him assurances that it would be safe to do so.
The relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States has been steadily declining over the past few years and the Saudi Kingdom appears to be more aligned with Russia and supporting them, than doing business with America.
This is also worrisome as Saudi Arabia is the biggest producer of oil and any additional roadblocks in the supply chain will be devastating to the West and the rest of the world.
The assassination of journalists isn’t all that surprising, as the Islamic nation, has strict censorship, especially towards those that would dare to criticize the leadership.
Maybe some who live in America, should take note and appreciate the freedom they have to openly criticize the government.
