Colin Kahl on Khashoggi and Where the US Stands with Saudi Arabia

It is now clear that the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Turkey was a pre-planned execution, likely ordered by people at the very top of the Saudi government. The incident has sparked an international outcry, and raises questions about the US’s relationship with the Saudis. What is the underlying nature of the US-Saudi alliance? How has Trump's strategy differed from Obama’s, and what impact might all of this have on relations with Iran and elsewhere across the Middle East?

Colin Kahl was deputy assistant to President Obama and a national security advisor to Vice President Biden from 2014 to 2017. He’s now the co-director of FSI’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and the head of its Middle East Initiative. In this discussion with Michael McFaul, Kahl outlines the unease some American diplomats feel towards our relationship with Saudi Arabia. He explains steps that President Obama took to restructure the alliance, and he argues that President Trump’s decision to double-down in Saudi Arabia has narrowed the options for responding to an increasingly fractured relationship.

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