It has been almost three weeks after Jamal Ahmed Khashoggi disappeared from Saudi Consulate in Turkey. The sudden disappearance of Khashoggi has shaken the world! When we are talking about Khashoggi it should be clear that it is not a case of a needle or small toy, that we can claim it could be somewhere inside the room or under the couch, we are talking about a renowned personality.
Khashoggi was a prominent journalist, besides that he remained part of the Saudi intelligence during the Cold War and remained very close to Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan at that time. Surprisingly he was very close in all matters of the Royal family despite he was not belonging to the Saud family. He remained editor of various papers in Arabia too.
He was known for his liberal thinking and he always opposed the kingdom actions against journalists and woman activists. Because of all this, he left Saudi Arabia and went on self-exile and later decided to live in the US. Recently he was working for Washington Post as a reporter. In his recent articles he highly criticised Muhammad Bin Salman’s use of force against Yemen and also raised his voice against the barbarism of Israel against the innocent people of Palestine. Due to all his activism, he remained under the observation of Saudi Arabia till his disappearance.
When the matter was highlighted around the globe, US senators put pressure on their government and Trump came forward for Khashoggi. In his statement Trump warned the Saudi government of severe punishment if they were convicted. Sanctions will be another option for Trump administration but they will never ever impose trade sanctions on Saudi Arabiam because they are the most beneficiaries from the trade
He disappeared from Saudi Consulate surprisingly after he went there with his Turkish fiancé on 2nd Oct, he went inside and she was waiting for him outside but he never came out. On the next day Turkish journalist broke the news of his disappearance. The matter got more world attention when the Turkish police sources claimed that he has been killed inside the consulate and possibly dismembered. Then US came forward and asked for an explanation from the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia denied all the allegations and said that Khashoggi had left the consulate already. However, the kingdom has now recognized that the murder took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
However, even before admitting to this, the Saudi government’s actions were easy to read. For starters, a night before Khashoggi’s appointment, two planes from Saudi Arabia landed in Ataturk airport. A team of fifteen men arrived, and found lodging near the consulate. Around seven of the men are said to be MBS’s personal bodyguard. Most glaring, however is that while there is footage of Khashoggi entering the consulate, there is none of him leaving. The night Khashoggi disappeared; the fifteen member team left Istanbul. Furthermore, the Saudi government was not eager to cooperate with Turkish authorities, until pressure surmounted.
When the Turk government asked Saudi Arabia for evidence, instead of evidence, they accused Qatar of the incident. The Saudi government has also been making life more difficult for writers, critics, human rights activists etc. However,it is true that the profile of Erodgon and MBS is very low when it comes to freedom of expression rights.
When the matter was highlighted around the globe, US senators put pressure on their government and Trump came forward for Khashoggi. In his statement Trump warned the Saudi government of severe punishment if they were convicted. Sanctions will be another option for Trump administration but they will never ever impose trade sanctions on Saudi Arabiam because they are the most beneficiaries from the trade. There will be loss of many billion dollars to the industries of US. USwill cash it in different way, according to foreign media it was revealed that during the visit of Mike Pompeo $100 million were transferred to the US department by the Saudi government. Now the rope will be in the hand of USA how to handle the royal family.
This issue can create hurdle for MBS and financial crisis could be seen after this incident. Before the upcoming Saudi Arabia’s investment conference, the Khashoggi’s disappearance created trouble for the summit too. Recently many investors withdrew from it and many will in coming days according to the situation. If all these happen then there will be automatically hike in the oil prices and in this way it could affect the whole world.
The author is an Islamabad based writer. He can be reached at [email protected]
Published in Daily Times, October 22nd 2018.