Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday he had a “very productive” meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he previously criticized following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“I just had a very productive, candid meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince and his senior leadership team. The opportunity to enhance the U.S.-Saudi relationship is real and the reforms going on in Saudi Arabia are equally real,” Graham tweeted.
Graham, in a three-part tweet, said he looked forward to working with the Biden administration and Congress to “see if we can take the U.S.-Saudi relationship to the next level, which would be a tremendous economic benefit to both countries and bring much-needed stability to a troubled region.”
“I also expressed deep appreciation to the Kingdom for purchasing $37 billion worth of Boeing 787s – which are made in South Carolina – for the new Saudi airline. Investments like this are game changers,” Graham said in a tweet.
Soon after Khashoggi was murdered, Graham delivered a strong message to reporters in October 2018 as speculation ramped up that the journalist’s death was ordered by the highest levels of the royal court in Saudi Arabia. “There’ll be a bipartisan tsunami against Saudi Arabia here if they did, in fact, do this,” Graham told reporters at the time.
In November 2018, Graham said, “Don’t think Congress is going to look away if he’s (bin Salman) making the world a more dangerous place. We are not going to give an autocratic leader a pass.”
A declassified US intelligence report that was released in February 2021 said the crown prince approved the operation to capture or kill the Saudi journalist.
Graham did not reference Khashoggi’s death in his tweets Tuesday about his meeting with the crown prince.
The country’s state-run Saudi…
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