US sanctions against Saudis would anger military-industrial complex

If Washington imposes sanctions against Riyadh over Khashoggi’s killing, it would create outrage in the US military–industrial complex,“ said James Fetzer, a retired professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota.

Khashoggi’s murder “appears to have been designed to put President Trump in a dilemma where he either accepts the brutality of the murder and  imposes sanctions on the Saudis, which would upset the military–industrial complex because it would entail canceling $110 billion worth of arms orders or he seeks to preserve his relationship with the Saudis …. and inflames the world,” Fetzer said.

“He has initially tried to thread the needle by suggesting that the belated Saudi explanation that Khashoggi had died after a fistfight inside the consulate was credible,” he added.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, disappeared three weeks ago after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage.

Trump has said that the consequences for the Saudis "will have to be very severe" if they are found to have killed Khashoggi, but has acknowledged he wants to protect Washington’s massive arms sale to the kingdom.

Trump emphasized on Saturday that he was not satisfied with the Saudis' handling of the case, further raising questions over whether he would act to impose sanctions on Saudi officials believed to be behind Khashoggi's death.

The incident has grown into a public relations nightmare for the kingdom and the crown prince in particular.

So grave is the fallout from the murder of Khashoggi that Saudi King Salman has felt compelled to intervene, five sources with links to the Saudi royal family have told Reuters.

Initially the king, who has handed the day-to-day running of Saudi Arabia to his son, commonly known as MBS, was unaware of the extent of the crisis, according to two of the sources with knowledge of the ruling family.

"The king started asking aides and MBS about it. MBS had to tell him and asked him to intervene when Khashoggi’s case became a global crisis," one of the sources said.

Since he acceded to the throne in January 2015, the king has given MBS, 33, increasing authority to run Saudi Arabia. But the king's latest intervention reflects growing concern among some officials in Riyadh about MBS's fitness to govern, the five sources said.

"He has been living in an artificially-created bubble," said one of the sources. Lately, though, the king's advisers have grown frustrated and begun warning him of the risks of leaving the crown prince's power unchecked. "The people around him are starting to tell him to wake up to what's happening," one of the sources said.