US senators introduce resolution blaming MBS for Khashoggi murder

Since then, the US-backed Saudi-UAE alliance has launched more than 18,000 air raids, part of a war which has killed tens of thousands of civilians.

The senators urged the kingdom to negotiate directly with representatives of the Houthi rebels to end the war in Yemen.

The resolution also called on Saudi Arabia to end a blockade imposed by itself and three other Arab states on Qatar in June last year and seek a political solution in the worst diplomatic rift to have struck the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

The bipartisan group of senators also wants the release of blogger Raif Badawi, women’s rights activists and other political prisoners held in Saudi Arabia.

‘Destabilising actions’

Their move came a day after some senators said there is “zero chance” MBS was not involved in Khashoggi’s murder following a closed-door briefing by CIA Director Gina Haspel.

Tuesday’s briefing came a week after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis had told senators that there was no hard evidence MBS was behind the killing and urged senators not to downgrade ties with Saudi Arabia over the incident. The CIA has reportedly assessed, however, that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of Khashoggi.

Trump has repeatedly avoided any assertion that Prince Mohammed was involved in the October 2 killing and said the CIA had “feelings” the royal was culpable but not a firm conviction.

Commenting on the senators’ resolution, Nabeel Khoury, a former US diplomat and deputy chief of mission in Yemen, said the Senate is starting to see MBS as a destabilising influence.

“Trump has lost the debate with Congress on what should be done about the Khashoggi murder and while he was out with Mattis and Pompeo arguing about the value of Saudi Arabia, what Congress is telling him is, ‘No one is contesting that, what we’re contesting is the direction the Saudi policy has taken under MBS’,” he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

“They have now linked all the destabilising actions that MBS has taken, starting with Yemen, passing by the Khashoggi murder onto Qatar and even Lebanon.

“The administration will have to act behind the scenes maybe to pressure Saudi Arabia into some kind of acceptable corrective force or this is going to get worse – in the end, Congress, especially the House, controls the purse strings and can eventually force the administration’s hands.”

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies.