RNA - Trump has strongly defended ties with Saudi Arabia despite international condemnation of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder.
Trump on Wednesday thanked Saudi Arabia for the declining price of oil, one day after he said the United States would back the country even if Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of Khashoggi.
In his remarks on Tuesday, Trump, who was answering questions about possible punishment for Saudi Arabia over the killing of Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul last month, evaded a question about defending human rights with a short sentence and then abruptly switched the subject to Iran, calling the Islamic Republic a "terrorist nation.”
“This is absoluterly outlandish that Trump is referring to Iran as a terrorist nation; the fact of the matter is that the United States is working directly with two of the greatest terrorist nations…Israel and Saudi Arabia,” said Mark Dankof, who is also a broadcaster and Lutheran Protestant pastor in San Antonio, Texas.
“Trump is simply contradicting his own America First rhetoric by allowing these two criminal regimes to lead the United States government and Mr Trump himself around by the nose and clearly the rest of the world understands that Iran is not a terrorist nation,” Dankof told said.
It’s a “tragic situation” and Trump “has lost absolutely every bit of credibility that he has ever had on this America First issue,” Dankoff said.
According to Press TV, US media have reported that the CIA believes bin Salman ordered Khashoggi's murder.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee demanded on Tuesday that the Trump administration examine whether bin Salman was responsible for the murder.
Republican Senator Bob Corker and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez sent a letter to Trump triggering a provision of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act requiring the president to determine whether a foreign person was responsible for a human rights violation.
Many Saudis say they have been shaken by this shocking murder and regret it will cast a dark shadow on their country for many years to come.
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