U.S. pressure on Saudi Arabia after the murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi could give China the opportunity to peel away a key American ally in the Middle East, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned lawmakers Wednesday.
“We want to keep Saudi Arabia in America’s column, because the alternative is co-optation by China and Russia,” Pompeo told the full Senate, according to his prepared remarks.
Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis made that case in a closed-door meeting of the Senate. They argued that withdrawal of support for the Saudi-led coalition would allow Iranian proxy forces to dominate Yemen, an embattled neighbor that shares a border with the Saudis. Such an outcome would heighten the danger Iran poses to the key Arab ally.
They are going up against lawmakers in both parties who are frustrated with the Saudi monarchy over the recent murder of a dissident Washington Post columnist and the killing of civilians in Yemen. Pompeo argued that the Khashoggi murder shouldn’t be used to justify a shift away from Saudi Arabia.
“[D]egrading ties with Saudi Arabia would be a grave mistake for U.S. national security, and that of our allies,” Pompeo said. “The Kingdom is a powerful force for stability in an otherwise fraught Middle East.”
Pompeo affirmed the U.S.-Saudi alliance in the context of a debate over American aid to the Saudi Arabian coalition in the Yemeni civil war. American involvement in the conflict, even indirectly, has been controversial on Capitol Hill for years due to Saudi Arabia’s failure to mitigate civilian casualties, but the appetite for a rebuke reached a high-watermark after Khashoggi was murdered by membered of the Saudi royal guard.
“This legislation is an important way to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for various acts in Yemen as well as the death of Jamal Khashoggi,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said this month while introducing a bill to suspend arms sales to the Saudis and end U.S. refueling of Saudi aircraft carrying out the airstrikes.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has proposed a suspension of negotiations over U.S.-Saudi cooperation on civilian nuclear power technology. Rubio and Graham are just two of the lawmakers looking to rebuke Saudi Arabia, but their opposition is particularly notable given their long-standing concern about the threat of Iran; the Trump administration sees Saudi Arabia has a critical player in opposing Iran, as do other Iran hawks.
“The various Yemen resolutions and proposals would hand Yemen over to Iran,” a senior Senate Republican aide sympathetic to the administration’s position told the Washington Examiner.
The issue has scrambled traditional political coalitions. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have offered a bill that would invoke the War Powers Resolution to mandate an end to Yemen-related aid, arguing that it amounts to an illegal, undeclared war.
Pompeo put the defense of the Yemen policy in a defense of the Saudi Arabian alliance that was worth protecting and strengthening in the face of efforts by China and Russia to make diplomatic gains with Saudi Arabia.
“China heavily depends on Saudi crude oil,” Pompeo reminded the lawmakers. “They have signed a memorandum of understanding on nuclear cooperation. And Chinese state-owned enterprises tend to underbid competitors on key projects in Saudi Arabia. As for Russia – [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir] Putin have made agreements this year on oil and gas cooperation. Russia is very aggressive in offering S-400 missiles to Riyadh. And Russia is also competing for nuclear projects.”
Pompeo also argued that withdrawal of aid for Saudi operations in Yemen would only worsen the humanitarian crisis there as the war continued absent U.S. logistical support.
“This conflict isn’t optional for Saudi Arabia, and abandoning it puts American interests at risk, too,” he said.
