Category: Foreign Affairs

Saudi Arabia’s deputy public prosecutor has said the kingdom is seeking the death penalty for five people who have been accused of carrying out the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Shaalan al-Shaalan told a news conference in Riyadh on Thursday that Ahmed al-Assiri, the kingdom’s former deputy head of intelligence, dispatched a team to Turkey to persuade Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia.
He said after “talks with him failed”, the head of the Saudi team in Istanbul ordered that Khashoggi be killed.

The 59-year-old then died from a lethal injection and his body was dismembered and taken out of the building, he said.

Al-Shaalan said 21 people were now in custody, with 11 indicted and referred to trial, adding that Saud al-Qahtani, a former adviser to the royal court, had been banned from travelling and remained under investigation.
Al-Shaalan said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, was not implicated in the gruesome murder that has triggered global outrage.

Khashoggi, a critic of MBS’s supposed reform programme, entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain a document certifying his divorce.

Saudi authorities had initially stated the journalist left the consulate, before backtracking and admitting on October 20 he was killed by “rogue” operatives.

Turkish officials have said it is unlikely Khashoggi could have been killed without the knowledge of MBS, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying the orders came from “the highest levels of the Saudi government.”

According to the New York Times, a member of the Saudi team that killed Khashoggi made a phone call shortly after his death, instructing someone in Saudi Arabia to “tell your boss” that the assassination had been carried out.

Later on Thursday, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister, criticised the Saudi announcement as “insufficient” and insisted the killing was “premeditated.”

“Turkish law is applicable in this case, even though the murder took place in the Saudi consulate,” he said, demanding that all the suspects be extradited and “tried in accordance with Turkish law”.

Bill Law, a journalist and Middle East analyst, told Al Jazeera that despite not being implicated, there was “enormous pressure” accumulating on MBS, and Turkey could demand an international probe into the journalist’s murder.

“Just yesterday, Lindsey Graham described him [MBS] as unreliable and unstable.

“Graham, a senior Republican senator, and Bob Corker, the chair of the foreign relations committee, have called for an immediate end to the arms deals that the US has [with Saudi Arabia] in the Yemen war and has also said that as far as he’s concerned, Mohammed bin Salman is the person responsible,” Law said.

“[Erdogan] will keep up the demand for an international investigation. It is clear that no one has any faith in the Saudis investigating effectively, Mohammed bin Salman investigating himself nor in the Saudi judicial system.

“It’s a pressure point that Erdogan can continue to push on and I think he will do that.”

Strapped for cash, Pakistan looks to China and the Middle East for help

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan recently traveled to China in hopes of securing funds for his troubled country — but he left without any tangible guarantees.

The South Asian state, which recently received a $6 billion aid package from Saudi Arabia, is hunting for more external financing to avert a balance of payments crisis before approaching the International Monetary Fund.

“The way Islamabad sees it, the less it needs to ask from the IMF, the more leverage it may have at the negotiating table with the Fund,” said Michael Kugelman of the Wilson Center.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan wrapped up a four-day visit to China on Monday without achieving his primary goal of securing Chinese financing. As the South Asian nation scrambles for external help, it may have no choice except to approach the International Monetary Fund for what would be its second bailout in five years.

Beijing is committed to assisting Islamabad but more talks are needed, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou was quoted as saying on Saturday after a meeting between Khan and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Pakistan’s economy, however, may not be able to wait much longer. The country urgently needs a capital boost in order to avert a looming balance of payments crisis. Foreign reserves held by the central bank dropped below $8 billion in late October, raising concerns about Islamabad’s ability to finance monthly import bills.

Beijing is one of Islamabad’s closest allies and a major investor, having loaned the South Asian nation around $4 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June, according to multiple reports. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also committed billions to building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. A network of transport, energy, industrial and agricultural projects, the CPEC runs from the Pakistani city of Gwadar to the Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Beijing’s decision to hold off on more loans — its most recent one, worth $2 billion, came days following Khan’s election in July — may be tied to the trade spat with Washington, suggested Sahar Khan, a visiting research fellow at the Cato Institute. The world’s second largest economy has experienced tightened liquidity conditions recently amid currency declines and pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

“Islamabad wanted to get some degree of financial support from a bilateral partner so that it can bring down its ask of the IMF.” -Michael Kugelman, The Wilson Center
“China’s refusal to agree to anything specific during Khan’s trip is a bit of a setback,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia program and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center. But given rising concerns in Pakistan about the CPEC, Xi’s government may be signaling “that it’s time for Pakistan to figure out how to make things work,” he added.

Abdul Razak Dawood, Pakistan’s cabinet member for commerce, industry and investment, told the Financial Times in September, that he believes CPEC should be put on hold for a year, adding that Chinese companies in the country held an undue advantage over local firms.

What now for Pakistan?
Even before Khan’s trip to China, his government was widely expected to ask the IMF for a bailout. But the cricketer-turned-politician, who delivered a keynote address at the China International Import Expo on Monday, had expressed a preference to seek funding from friendly countries first.

The Islamic Republic already received a $6 billion rescue package from Saudi Arabia last month — a deal seen by some as Riyadh’s way of keeping its friends close amid international pressure over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Riyadh who was murdered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Some U.S. lawmakers and Turkish officials have said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination, but the Kingdom denies those allegations.

“The Saudis have basically given $6 billion in assistance as a ‘thank you’ to the Pakistani government for standing by them during a time of crisis,” said Uzair Younus, director of South Asia practice at strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group. “It is definitely linked to Khashoggi’s murder.”

“The deal likely came with an unstated expectation that Pakistan will need to reassert its allegiance to the Saudis in the Saudi Arabia-Iran rivalry, despite the new Pakistani government’s robust expressions of neutrality,” added Kugelman.

The Pakistani premier has already announced that his administration will mediate between Riyadh and Tehran in Yemen, “though how he plans to do that is unclear,” said the Cato Institute’s Khan.

Without more external financing, an IMF bailout for Pakistan now appears inevitable. Many economists argue that IMF loans create a debt trap for emerging economies but the same has also been said about Chinese investment.

“Islamabad wanted to get some degree of financial support from a bilateral partner so that it can bring down its ask of the IMF,” according to Kugelman. “The way Islamabad sees it, the less it needs to ask from the IMF, the more leverage it may have at the negotiating table with the Fund.”

The United Arab Emirates could also be a potential lifeline for Khan’s administration following reports that both countries held discussions about a deferred oil payment facility, Pakistani media reported in late October.

“Regardless of whether the Chinese or the Emiratis provide assistance, Pakistan will enter IMF negotiations for another bailout,” said Younus. “The size of this bailout will be determined by what assistance can be gained from the Chinese and the Emiratis.”

There’s still a chance Beijing could eventually come around.

show chaptersThe relationship between Chinese and Pakistani leadership remains nascent so “assistance will flow only after the Chinese believe that they have a strong partner in the PTI government that is ready and capable of pushing through more projects,” Younus said, referring to Khan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

Further complicating the matter is U.S. objection to an IMF bailout for Islamabad. Speaking to CNBC earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said IMF funds would essentially bail out Chinese bondholders or China itself.

“Pakistan represents a litmus test of all future cases in which the IMF, United States, China, and any emerging market country are all involved,” analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a recent note.

“Depending on how Beijing chooses to navigate Pakistan’s financial crisis, China may soon find itself responsible for rectifying the debt burdens of Zambia and many other [Belt and Road] countries.”

In a wide-ranging interview with Sindh TV News, Washington based journalist and author Nafisa Hoodbhoy says that the US and Pakistan are still not on the same page, despite diplomatic efforts to bridge the divide from both sides.

Interviewed by Sindh TV anchor Fayyaz Naiych in front of the US Capitol, the author says that the Trump administration has kept its consistent pressure on Pakistan to “stop giving refuge to Afghan Taliban,” whom they claim are still fighting NATO troops in Afghanistan.

The US has ramped the pressure by cutting off Coalition Support Funds to Pakistan – with the step taken in sync with US president Donald Trump’s harsh New Year tweet against Pakistan’s Afghan policy.

She speaks about how Pakistan’s economic difficulties have caused it to approach the International Monetary Fund for a bail out loan. In her words, this requires that Pakistan keep its good relations with the US, including allaying suspicion that it does not repay China’s loans through IMF aid.

The author speaks about how the US relationship with India has expanded to deeper economic investment, while its relationship with Pakistan still revolves around finding a final resolution to its longest war in Afghanistan.

The interview may be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI5z8fW0b9k

ISLAMABAD – Newly installed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has told Middle East Eye that his country must continue to prioritise good relations with Saudi Arabia despite the killing of Jamal Khashoggi because of its dire economic crisis.

Khan is due to travel to Riyadh on Tuesday to attend an investment summit that has been boycotted by many western officials and companies following the death of the journalist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.

And in his first interview with foreign journalists since taking office in August, Khan admitted that he could not afford not to attend.

Though shocked by Khashoggi’s killing, he said the Pakistani government needed urgent access to Saudi loans to avoid defaulting on record levels of debt within months.

“We’re desperate at the moment,” Khan said.

But Khan called on the US to drop its sanctions against Iran, Saudi Arabia’s bitter regional rival, which he said had also been detrimental to the economy of neighbouring Pakistan.

‘The last thing the Muslim world needs is another conflict. The Trump administration is moving towards one’
– Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan

And he urged US President Donald Trump to stop seeking to provoke a conflict there, and suggested that his government could play a mediating role between Tehran and Riyadh.

“The last thing the Muslim world needs is another conflict. The Trump administration is moving towards one,” he said.

Khan also urged western and Arab governments to reopen their embassies in Damascus, now that pro-Syrian government forces have reclaimed most of the country after seven years of civil war.

Such a move would mark a remarkable reversal of policy by governments which closed their embassies in the early months of the war and called on President Bashar al-Assad to resign.

Pakistan has been one of the few countries which has kept its embassy open throughout the conflict.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Afghanistan, Khan noted that the US had come round to accepting the need for talks with the Taliban, and suggested that one radical solution to the country’s problems could be a coalition government in which the Taliban shared power.

Worst debt crisis in history
Khan concedes however that his immediate foreign policy priority is maintaining good relations with Saudi Arabia despite worldwide outrage at Khashoggi’s suspected murder by Saudi officials.

He described the journalist’s death as “sad beyond belief”, and indicated that he did not consider credible the latest official Saudi account of what happened.

Saudi Arabia said on Friday that Khashoggi had died in a fight with officials inside the building. Saudi officials had previously said that Khashoggi left the consulate soon after arriving.

“What happened in Turkey was just shocking. What should I say? It shocked all of us,” he said.

“The Saudi government will have to come up with an answer… We wait for whatever the Saudi explanation is. We hope there is an explanation that satisfies people and those responsible are punished.”

But Khan said he had no choice but to attend Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Future Investment Summit, which starts on Tuesday, because his country was so deep in debt.

“The reason I feel I have to avail myself of this opportunity [to speak to the Saudi leadership] is because in a country of 210 million people right now we have the worst debt crisis in our history, he told MEE, as he fidgeted with worry beads.

“Unless we get loans from friendly countries or the IMF [the International Monetary Fund] we actually won’t have in another two or three months enough foreign exchange to service our debts or to pay for our imports. So we’re desperate at the moment.”

Khan added that Pakistan would probably need loans from both friendly governments and the IMF to meet its commitments.

He was speaking in his privately-owned home perched on a hill in the village of Bani Gala high above Islamabad with a gorgeous view of farms and a distant lake.

Mediating role between Riyadh and Tehran
Khan’s trip to Riyadh is his second visit to Saudi Arabia in five weeks. Although he is yet to visit Tehran, the Pakistani Prime Minister hopes his government can play a mediating role in the worsening confrontation between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

“The best thing which could happen is us playing the role of bringing them together, somehow helping in alleviating and getting rid of this conflict,” he said.

He unambiguously blamed the US and Israel: “The US-Iran situation is disturbing for all of us in the Muslim world… The last thing the Muslim world wants is another conflict. The worrying part is that the Trump administration is moving towards some sort of conflict with Iran.

Why Saudi Arabia and Iran are desperately trying to court Imran Khan
“From our point of view, Iran is a neighbour. We already have a problem with one neighbour, Afghanistan… This is a policy driven by Israel which is leading the US to a conflict with Iran,” he said.

He pointed out that Iran was staying faithful to the nuclear deal signed with the US, Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany, but the Trump administration’s decision to repudiate it and impose sanctions on Iran directly affected Pakistan.

“Oil prices have already almost doubled in the last year and a half. The impact it has on poor countries in terms of creating more poverty. So I hope that sanity prevails and this rhetoric doesn’t lead to conflict.”
Asked if he would like the US to drop its sanctions on Iran, he replied unhesitatingly: “Yes, I would.”

US sanctions had scuppered plans for a gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan, and impeded trade and banking, he explained. He also worried over the risk that the confrontation between largely Sunni Saudi Arabia and largely Shia Iran could heighten sectarian tensions in Pakistan.

“Twenty percent of our population, almost 40 million people, are Shia. Pakistan has traditionally had very powerful, very close relations with Saudi Arabia. Not only because in times of need Saudi Arabia has helped us. There are also two million Pakistani workers in Saudi Arabia. The country depends on their remittances,” he said.

Khan referred repeatedly to the fact that wars rarely go as smoothly as the planners want. He cited the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, which the US expected to lead to quick success but turned into quagmires lasting for years.

Opposed Saudi-led war in Yemen
During his visit to Riyadh in September he had made the same point to the Saudi leadership in connection with Yemen, he revealed.

“I have always opposed military solutions”, he told MEE. “So when I went the first time to Saudi Arabia I gave my opinion that whenever military men tell you that it’s only a matter of weeks or months, whenever you start a war it has unintended consequences.”

Pakistan which has fought three major wars with India since independence in 1947 has a long history of military ties to Saudi Arabia. Its battle-experienced officers have been helping to train the Saudis for more than three decades.

When Mohammed bin Salman formed a coalition of Muslim states to intervene militarily in Yemen, he asked Pakistan to take part.

Asia’s quiet superpower: Pakistan army’s teetering balance between Saudi Arabia and Iran
Nawaz Sharif, Khan’s predecessor as prime minister, wanted to accept but the Pakistani parliament, where Khan was an opposition leader, voted overwhelmingly to refuse.

Senior generals were also against involvement, partly for fear that any support for the Saudi military against Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are mainly Zaidis, a non-Sunni branch of Islam, could incite problems in the ranks of the non-sectarian Pakistani army.

Nevertheless there have been media reports that Pakistani trainers have been on the Yemeni border advising Saudi forces. In his MEE interview Khan categorically denied this.

“It [our military] is not taking part in any action in Yemen. It is not involved in any conflict in Yemen,” he said.
‘The people of Syria have lost’
On Syria he took a strong line, arguing that outside interference by foreign states to bring about regime change there had caused more problems and was wrong.

‘Look at the suffering of the people. So yes, the answer is there should be peace there. Syria does not need more military action for regime change’

Asked if he thought Assad had won, he replied: “The people of Syria have lost. But I guess he [Assad] is in control now… Look at the suffering of the people. So yes, the answer is there should be peace there. Syria does not need more military action for regime change.”

Khan has long been a critic of US military involvement in Pakistan as well as the Middle East. After 9/11 and the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan he opposed the decision by General Pervez Musharraf (the country’s military ruler at the time) to send Pakistani troops to try to catch al-Qaeda fighters who had fled from Afghanistan to Pakistan’s autonomous tribal areas.

“General Musharraf got pressured by the Americans and did something which was probably the biggest blunder committed by a Pakistani leader,” he said.

“What happened in the tribal areas was almost a civil war with people standing up against our troops because of the collateral damage, and this ended in a full-fledged operation where half the people ended up being internally displaced.

“Almost three million people were displaced out of six million in the population. The whole area was devastated by the war in 10 or 12 years. It’s still not safe right now. We ended up losing almost 80,000 people dead. And that was under American pressure.”

He insisted that “what should never happen again is that Pakistan on anyone’s insistence including the Americans should ever send troops against our own people”.

‘Taliban Khan’
He said that “for advocating a political settlement 10 years ago they call me Taliban Khan”. He welcomed the fact that the Americans had finally realised there was no military solution in Afghanistan and had started talks with the Taliban.

He said he wished Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Afghanistan had been delayed and some sort of power-sharing deal had been agreed with the Taliban. It should still happen, he believes.

“I think there is a realisation that the Taliban cannot be defeated and I guess the Taliban realise that the other forces, the Northern Alliance, President Ghani’s government, cannot be defeated. So they would come to some sort of power-sharing agreement, which is the only solution.”

Khan acknowledged his line of thinking used to be considered anti-American. But he claimed that now that the US accepted there was no military solution in Afghanistan Pakistan’s relations with the US would be better than at any time in the last 10 years.

If his prediction is borne out, it will be an extraordinary turnaround. In January 2018, Trump tweeted: “The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than $33 billion in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies and deceit.”

In reaction Khan, at that stage an opposition MP, called Trump “ignorant and ungrateful”.

In his MEE interview, Khan was more diplomatic. A former captain of Pakistan’s national cricket team, he used a cricketing metaphor about a batsman who does not engage with a wide ball but lets it go past him to the wicket-keeper.

Asked what he thought of Trump, he said: “If I wasn’t the Prime minister, I would have given my views. Being the Prime Minister I have much more responsibility, so I’ll just say as we say in cricket, ‘well left’.”

Donald Trump says the US has asked Turkey for an audio recording of Jamal Khashoggi’s death which reportedly proves he was brutally tortured before his premeditated murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Turkish officials said the audio recording had been handed over to the US and Saudi Arabia. But on Wednesday, Trump told reporters: “We’ve asked for it … if it exists” – before adding that it “probably does” exist.

Trump had previously suggested he believes the denials of responsibility from the Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and warned against a rush to judgement.

On Wednesday, Trump denied he was covering up for the Saudi royals but at the same time pointed to their importance as strategic and commercial partners.

“I’m not giving cover at all. And with that being said, Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. We are stopping Iran,” he told reporters.

I’m not giving cover at all. And with that being said, Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. We are stopping Iran,” he told reporters.

But Trump’s defence of the Saudi royals has become increasingly difficult as Turkish government leaks and press reports have revealed more details about the grisly nature of Khashoggi’s fate and the involvement of Saudi operatives close to the Saudi crown prince.

The evidence, if confirmed, would also undermine any Saudi attempt to claim that Khashoggi’s death was the result of an interrogation gone wrong, carried out by rogue elements in the Saudi intelligence and security services. Multiple reports have suggested that Riyadh was contemplating putting out a narrative along those

According to an account in the pro-government daily newspaper Yeni Şafak, and a later report citing Turkish officials by the New York Times, the audio recording proves that Khashoggi was seized as soon as he entered the office of the Saudi consul, Mohammad al-Otaibi, on 2 October.

The dissident journalist was beaten and had his fingers cut off, according to the news account. Otaiba asked for the torture to be done outside his office, saying: “You will put me in trouble.”

“If you want to live when you come back to Arabia, shut up,” the consul was told by a Saudi hit team who had flown to Istanbul hours before Khashoggi’s planned visit to the consulate, where he had expected to pick up legal papers he needed to get married.

Khashoggi was beheaded and his body was cut up. A Saudi forensics specialist Salah Muhammad al-Tubaigy can be heard putting on headphones to listen to music and telling others to do the same while the body was dismembered, according to the reports.

Investigators believe that after the killing, Khashoggi’s body was taken to the consul general’s house, where it was disposed of.

Police set up barricades outside the residence on Tuesday evening to carry out a planned search of the premises, but Turkey was waiting for an agreement with Saudi Arabia to do so. Under the Vienna convention, diplomatic missions are considered foreign soil.

Otaibi, who has not been seen in public since the scandal erupted, left Turkey on a commercial flight to Riyadh on Tuesday.

A search of the house and some diplomatic vehicles was planned for Wednesday evening, as well as a second sweep of the consulate.

Several Saudi investigators arrived at the consular residence on Wednesday afternoon before the joint investigation.

It is unclear how the Turkish authorities obtained audio recordings of the murder, but officials have briefed multiple news organisations on their macabre contents.

The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, initially refused to say whether he had heard the recordings at meetings at Istanbul airport on Wednesday morning with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. His spokeswoman later said that he had not.

In Washington, Donald Trump has come under increasing pressure for his defence of the Saudi regime, in the face of revulsion from top Republicans in the Senate.

Saudi Arabia, they’re an ally, and they’re a tremendous purchaser of, not only military equipment, but other things

In response to reporters’ questions about the case, Trump repeated past claims about US sales to Saudi Arabia, which have previously been shown to be vastly exaggerated.

“If you look at Saudi Arabia, they’re an ally, and they’re a tremendous purchaser of not only military equipment but other things,” he said. “When I went there, they committed to purchase $450bn worth of things, and $110bn worth of military. Those are the biggest orders in the history of this country, probably the history of the world.”

The $110bn figure has been shown to have been hugely inflated, apparently reflecting some arms deals done under the Obama administration, and some statements of intent from Riyadh, but very few – if any – new contracts.

The Saudi government claimed at the time of Trump’s visit to Riyadh in May 2017 that the two countries would do $380bn in total business together, but that also appeared to be an aspirational figure.

Trump has denied any personal financial relationship with the Saudi monarchy but in the past he has sold a yacht and apartments for millions of dollars to Saudi customers and Saudis continue to use his hotels.

The president insisted he was determined to get to the bottom of the Khashoggi case.

“I want to find out what happened, where is the fault, and we will probably know that by the end of the week. But Mike Pompeo is coming back, we’re gonna have a long talk,” Trump said.

In his own remarks to reporters in Istanbul, Pompeo would not comment on whether the Saudi journalist was dead or alive, but there is little doubt now among US officials that he was assassinated. Some of the 15-strong Saudi hit team that flew to Istanbul and lay in wait for Khashoggi in the consulate, are members of the crown prince’s entourage.

The team arrived on on two Gulfstream jets that flew in to Istanbul on 2 October, the day of Khashoggi’s disappearance and returned to Riyadh on 3 October. The planes belonged to an aviation company that was seized by the Saudi government last year.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday that four of the men identified by Turkish media as part of a 15-man hit squad sent from Riyadh to silence Khashoggi were members of Bin Salman’s personal security detail. Tubaigy, holds a senior position in the Saudi interior ministry.

Before meeting Pompeo, Erdoğan had revealed signs of an attempted cover-up in the Saudi consulate, saying police had found freshly painted walls and “toxic” substances during a search of the building.

Çavuşoğlu described the two 40-minute meetings with Pompeo as “beneficial and fruitful”. After their conversation, Pompeo did not reveal what Erdoğan had told him about the investigation, other than to claim the Saudis were cooperating fully after “a couple of delays”.

“He made clear that the Saudis had cooperated with the investigation that the Turks are engaged in, and that they are going to share information that they learned with the Saudis as well,” Pompeo said. “There had been a couple of delays but they seemed pretty confident that the Saudis would permit them to do the things they needed to do to complete their thorough and complete investigation.”

Pompeo has attracted fierce criticism for his seemingly jovial meeting on Tuesday with the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Several of Bin Salman’s security detail have been identified in press reports as members of the hit squad alleged to have murdered Khashoggi in the consulate.

Asked whether the Saudis had told him whether Khashoggi was dead or alive, Pompeo replied: “I don’t want to talk about any of the facts. They didn’t want to either, in that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way.”
Pompeo also claimed there was serious commitment in Riyadh to “determine all the facts and ensure accountability”.
After his meetings with the Turkish leadership, Pompeo said it was reasonable to give the Saudis more time to do so.
“It’s not about benefit of the doubt,” Pompeo said. “It’s that it is reasonable to give them a handful of days more to complete that so they get it right so that it’s thorough and complete and that’s what they’ve indicated they need and I’m hopeful that we’ll get to see it.”

However, he made clear that the Trump administration would take the broader US relationship with the Saudi regime into account in deciding how to respond to the Khashoggi case.

“I do think it’s important that everyone keeps in their mind that we have a lot of important relationships – financial relationships between US and Saudi companies, governmental relationships – things we work on together all across the world. The efforts to reduce the risk to the United States of America from the world’s largest state sponsor of terror, Iran,” Pompeo said.

“The Saudis have been great partners in working alongside us on those issues … And we just need to make sure that we are mindful of that as we approach decisions that the United States government will take.”

But the suspects’ direct links to the Saudi establishment weaken the suggestion made by Trump that the alleged murder could have been carried out by “rogue killers” in an unauthorised operation.

At the United Nations, Trump proves the world is indeed laughing at America.

On Tuesday, the president addressed the UN and made a familiar boast that his administration “has accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” Trump has self-praised in this way on many occasions, at rallies, when speaking to fellow Republicans, and even in talks with world leaders. But in all those circumstances, the auditors were either inclined to agree with Trump or had a motive to flatter him by pretending agreement. At the UN, Trump got a very different reaction: a low murmur of laughter.

Taken aback by the chuckling, Trump did a double take and said, “didn’t expect that reaction, but that’s okay.” This amused the audience even more.

Although Trump took the unexpected mockery calmly and moved on, the incident hits the president at a vulnerable spot. As Paul Waldman noted in The Week in May of 2017, Trump has an almost pathological horror at being laughed at:

If you’ve been paying any attention at all over the last couple of years, you know this is a topic he returns to again and again. Search Trump’s Twitter feed and you’ll find that who’s laughing at whom is an obsession for him, with the United States usually the target of the laughter. “The world is laughing at us.” China is “laughing at USA!” Iran is “laughing at Kerry & Obama!” “ISIS & all others laughing!” “Mexican leadership has been laughing at us for many years.” “Everybody is laughing at Jeb Bush.” “Putin is laughing at Obama.” “OPEC is laughing at how stupid we are.” “Dopey, nobody is laughing at me!”
On August 9, 2014 Trump tweeted:

These words now ring with truth.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has invited Saudi Arabia to become a strategic third partner in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the decision is expected to bring huge investments in the country.

Pakistan is expected to receive an economic package worth $8 billion from Saudi Arabia which includes investment in the port city of Gwadar under CPEC. The deal was reported agreed during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to the Kingdom.

The Kingdom is also expected to invest the mega oil city project in Gwadar. The project was abandoned by the UAE earlier this year after the cost ballooned exponentially.

The 80,000-acres mega oil city at Gwadar will be used to transport oil from the Gulf region to China through the Gwadar Port. This will reduce the distance to just seven days from Gwadar to the Chinese border instead of the current forty days.

The incumbent government has prioritised projects under CPEC and has also formed a committee headed by Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bahtiar to focus on the development of Gwadar.

The cabinet committee in a meeting on Saturday decided to prioritise four special economic zones (SEZs) in Gwadar and the inclusion of social sector development and third country participation in CPEC.

Petroleum Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan has recently stated that Pakistan wants to to develop Gwadar not only as economic hub but also an oil city under CPEC.

The minister in meeting with the Chinese ambassador last week discussed future projects related to oil and gas exploration, petroleum transportation and processing. He took keen interest in the Chinese offer to establish of oil refinery in Pakistan.

Saudi Arabia has shown keen interest in CPEC primarily to relate its economy with China and take steps in achieving its Vision 2030, which aims to diversify the economy with energy mega projects to reduce oil dependency.

This would also utilise the unique location of Gwadar and become a global hub for vast economic activities. CPEC would provide the Saudis an opportunity to participate even better in world trade traffic.

Saudi Arabia will also be able to help China have a better crude oil supply. China is one of the largest oil consumers and highly dependent due to its trade and business activities. Therefore, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia both can benefit from the exclusive trade routes under CPEC.

Pompeo has held talks with Pakistan’s prime minister and foreign minister, as the two erstwhile strategic allies seek to mend ties that Pakistan has said have become “almost non-existent” in recent months.

Pompeo met Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Wednesday, in a set of talks both sides described as a “positive beginning” to rebuilding the relationship.

Army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, whose institution has ruled Pakistan for roughly half its history and still controls aspects of security and foreign policy, was also part of the talks.

“We have still got a long way to go, lots more discussion to be had,” Pompeo told reporters before leaving Islamabad for his next stop, the Indian capital New Delhi.

Qureshi will meet Pompeo again in Washington DC later this month, following his attendance of the UN General Assembly. He will also be travelling to Kabul shortly for talks with Afghan authorities, he said.

‘Alignment and convergence’
The talks on Wednesday focused on opportunities to reset the relationship and for greater cooperation on the war in Afghanistan, particularly on Pakistan’s role in the political reconciliation process with the Taliban, Pakistan’s foreign minister told reporters.

“The US has been evaluating its policy, and they have reached the conclusion that the solution in Afghanistan is a negotiated political settlement,” said Qureshi. “And here once again you will see an alignment and convergence between the US and Pakistan.”

Pakistan and the US have differed greatly over the conflict in Afghanistan, with the United States and Afghanistan often accusing Pakistan of offering sanctuary to leaders of the Afghan Taliban and its ally, the Haqqani Network.

Pakistan denies the charges, saying it has acted indiscriminately against all armed groups on its soil, and in turn accuses Kabul of allowing elements in the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban) to operate in that country’s eastern provinces.

Pompeo said the talks on Wednesday focused on deliverable outcomes.

“We made it clear to them – and they agreed – that it’s time for us to begin to deliver on our joint commitments,” he said. “We have had lots of times where we have talked and made agreements, but we have not been able to actually execute those.”

“And so, there was a broad agreement between myself and Foreign Minister Qureshi, as well as with the prime minister, that we need to begin to do things that will actually begin to deliver, on the ground, outcomes so that we can begin to build confidence and trust between the two countries.”

State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, meanwhile, said Pompeo commented on Pakistan’s role in neighbouring Afghanistan and the wider region during the talks.

“In all of his meetings, Secretary Pompeo emphasised the important role Pakistan could play in bringing about a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, and conveyed the need for Pakistan to take sustained and decisive measures against terrorists and militants threatening regional peace and stability,” Nauert said.

Funding slashed

The US-Pakistan relationship has remained troubled since President Donald Trump assumed power last year.
In January, Trump cut more than $1.1 billion in security assistance to Pakistan, accusing the country of “lies and deceit” in its role in the Afghan conflict.

On Sunday, the US confirmed that $300 million in a Coalition Support Funds reimbursement, which was initially suspended under that announcement, had been finally cancelled.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi said he did not raise the issue of the funds with Pompeo as he wanted to focus on resetting the atmosphere of the relationship, rather than dwelling on previous decisions.

“Our relationship is not based on transactions, we have to think differently,” he said. “We have to talk not about money, but about principles.”

Qureshi said that if the relationship was to move forward, “it must be based on truth [and] frank, candid conversations”.

“I said this to him, and he agreed, that this blame and shame game does not achieve anything,” he said.
“Yes, we have challenges. On some things, we may think differently, but we have shared objectives as well.”

KABUL, Afghanistan — The American-led invasion of Afghanistan routed Taliban extremists from power after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Nearly 17 years later, after tens of thousands of deaths, hundreds of billions of dollars spent and two White House administrations come and gone, those extremists are not only undefeated but seem as strong as ever.

Since Friday, Taliban fighters have roamed the streets of Ghazni City, a strategic urban center less than 100 miles from the capital, Kabul, killing dozens of Afghan soldiers and police officers, cutting communications and severing the main highway from Kabul to the south and beyond.

The Ghazni assault has demonstrated a stunning display of Taliban tenacity that belies the official Afghan and American narrative of progress in the war and the possibility for peace talks. It also has revealed remarkable bumbling by the Afghan military, including the wrong kind of ammunition sent to besieged police officers. Moreover, the siege has raised basic questions about what conditions the Taliban might accept for peace talks.

What is happening in Ghazni?
For months, residents and local officials in Ghazni, a city of about 280,000 people, had warned that the Taliban was surrounding the city and making inroads of control. Taliban fighters were even collecting taxes in some areas. On a visit in June, I found the city in fear — people avoided large gatherings. Assassinations were more frequent.

On Aug. 10, more than 1,000 Taliban fighters stormed the city in a predawn assault. Officials claim the Taliban were aided by foreign fighters, including Pakistanis and Chechens, and even some Al Qaeda affiliates

The police were forced to retreat and protect the main government facilities — the governor’s office, the Police Headquarters, the intelligence compound, the main prison — leaving the Taliban assailants to entrench themselves elsewhere. The Afghan minister of defense on Monday said that about 100 police officers and army soldiers and more 20 civilians had been killed. He put the number of dead Taliban fighters at about 200.

The siege of Ghazni is perhaps the most audacious example of a Taliban resurgence that has whittled the gains made after tens of thousands of American troops launched a campaign to oust them from power.

While not the first time Taliban fighters have invaded a major Afghan city in recent years, Ghazni’s strategic location is important. Its proximity to Kabul and location on the major highway connecting the capital to the south makes it a vital lifeline.

Rahmatullah Nabil, a former Afghan intelligence chief, said Ghazni also was important because some of its neighboring provinces border the tribal areas of northern Pakistan, where militants have long moved with impunity. Who controls Ghazni also impacts how freely the insurgents can move into other parts of the country, Mr. Nabil said. Taliban control of Ghazni also raises the possibility that Taliban eventually could surround Kabul itself.

In recent years, as Afghan forces have largely taken ownership of the war from American forces, the Taliban have continued to gain territory. In some areas, they have struggled to hold a district or city that they briefly entered, but in others they are firmly embedded.

According to the United States military, the Afghan government controls just over half of the country’s nearly 400 districts — about 56 percent. Taliban insurgents control 14 percent, and the rest of the country is contested.

A major deterrent to further Taliban gains has been American and Afghan airstrikes. The United States military alone has dropped about 3,000 bombs in the first six months of this year. But air power alone is insufficient.
Mr. Nabil said the internal political struggles of the Afghan government and its inability to outthink the Taliban’s moves before insurgents invaded a city were underlying problems. He likened the Ghazni battle to the 2015 siege of Kunduz, when it took more than two weeks for government-backed forces to retake the city.

“It was like this in Kunduz also — they first went after the outlying districts, then military bases, and eventually they made it to the city,” Mr. Nabil said. “Once the city is totally surrounded, entering inside the city becomes easy.”

How is the U.S. military involved?
The United States maintains about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan; they play an advisory role to Afghan troops and support a small counterterrorism mission. That is down from the peak of about American 100,000 soldiers in the country, at a time when the American military was leading the fight to defeat the Taliban in Afghan villages.

Military officials said American advisers were on the ground with Afghan forces in Ghazni. American forces also have conducted about 25 airstrikes in the city.

But much like the Afghan government, the United States military played down the extent of the crisis, in assessments completely at odds with the information from the locals.

A statement by the United States military said, for example, that the main highway to the south remained open. But passengers on both sides remained stuck, and local Afghan officials said the highway was closed.

It is unclear how many American troops are on the ground in Ghazni. But in cities such as Farah and Kunduz — assaulted by Taliban militants in 2015, 2016 and this year — the American military sent teams of Army Special Forces to call in airstrikes and fight alongside their Afghan commando counterparts.

One American military official said he wasn’t surprised by the attack on Ghazni. Turmoil between Ghazni’s Pashtun and Hazara tribes helped lay the foundation for the assault by the predominantly Pashtun militants.

Local tribal dynamics, he said, is one reason the Afghan government struggles to hold territory.

He added that these kinds of battles — heavy fighting in dispersed towns and small cities — were likely to keep happening well into the future, with American air power often acting as the deciding factor between victory and defeat.

To the west in Helmand Province, American troops are preparing for potential attacks on American and Afghan outposts because of concerns that Taliban fighters may be preparing to expand their offensive in Ghazni.

How will this affect peace talks with the Taliban?
For months now, a new, urgent push has been underway to persuade the Taliban negotiate. Such efforts have failed before, but now there are some important differences.

First, both sides announced a rare, overlapping cease-fire. Then, American diplomats met with Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, in what was seen as an icebreaker to ease the insurgent group’s long-held demand that it would first talk to the Americans without Afghan government officials present.

The increase in violence and the siege of Ghazni come at a time when the Afghan government and its international partners have been pushing for a second cease-fire in coming weeks. Although the violence is unlikely to change those plans, it does complicate the government’s effort to counter critics of the peace efforts.

Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting from Washington.