US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has cautioned against rushing to blame Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince over the disappearance and butchering of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, at the hands of servants of the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Crown Prince is the key ally of the US and the UK in the Midde East.
Saudi Arabia has purchased hundreds of billions of dollars and pounds-worth of US and UK arms, has ambitions to be a nuclear power, and is seen by the US-UK axis as the key to forcing the Palestinians into accepting that there are no longer any Palestinian refugees, and consequently they do not need a separate state of Palestine.
Saudi Arabia is also seen as vital for an attempt to do what Israel cannot do, subdue Hezbollah in the Lebanon, before forming an anti-Iran alliance to organise the march on Tehran and effect regime change. The Crown Prince can therefore do no wrong! He is untouchable as far as the imperialist powers are concerned.
In fact, the UK is deeply involved in the regime’s crimes especially in the Yemen, where tens of thousands have been killed by British-sold arms and millions more are starving, at the same time as UK officers are working with all branches of the Saudi armed forces involved in the massive slaughter of Yemeni men, women and children. Having been involved themselves in such a slaughter, naturally the UK and Trump are insisting that bin Salman is innocent until proven guilty, since in unmasking bin Salman they would be unmasking themselves.
In fact, Trump has already found a solution to the current crisis. This is that rogue elements could have been involved in any murder that took place and that the Saudi government should be allowed to identify them and deal with them under Saudi law.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has arrived in Turkey for talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following a meeting with Saudi King Salman and the Crown Prince on Tuesday to work out as plausible as possible a version of the ‘rogue elements’ scenario.
Trump has already tweeted that Prince Mohammed had spoken to him on the phone and he ‘totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate’. The President said ‘he told me that he has already started, and will rapidly expand, a full and complete investigation into this matter. Answers will be forthcoming shortly.’
Meanwhile, BAE Systems has refused to pull out of next week’s business conclave in Saudi Arabia, and will be attending to organise more arms sales. As well, US Trade Secretary Steve Mnuchin and UK International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will be attending the Crown Prince’s investment conference in Riyadh. In fact, it is business as usual in the land that BAE could not survive without selling arms to, and where public executions of opponents of the regime continue, and are now being supplemented by forays of the execution squads abroad.
The prostration of the UK in front of such a feudal regime is a matter of great shame for the British working class. There must be an immediate campaign by the trade unions to end all arms sales to Saudi Arabia, and for the withdrawal of all British soldiers and officials that are currently seconded to the Saudi murder machine in the Yemen, and are helping to oversee the slaughter there.
The only way to stop UK arms sales to the Saudi regime is to bring down the Tories with a general strike and bring in a workers government. A workers government will halt the Saudi arms sales, recognise the state of Palestine and give it every assistance it needs to put an end to feudalism in the Middle East. For the British workers the enemy is at home, it is the British ruling class. Our allies are the strugglng people of Palestine and the Middle East as a whole, and the working people of the world.
This alliance is a powerful force for the victory of the world socialist revolution and putting an end to the exploitation of the planet and its people by a handful of imperialist powers and their feudal allies in the Middle East. Forward to the Victory of the World Socialist Revolution!
