Page 1451 - Leverage News Today

The relationship is based on defense sales, is based on oil. saudi arabia needs the united kingdom and the west certainly because iran is right there on the border. there are various ways in which that sort of leverage can be expressed. were hearing that president trump has talked about severe punishment. the select committee in the u.k. has said measures should be put in place such as downgrading relations. these are points that can be pushed on. ultimately, the relationship itself, well sort o...

It is not quite what we are led to believe. it is murky and fuzzy and the third and the most likely explanation is that we are not the only game in town, and the europeans and the chinese and the russians and the united nations and if i were the turks i would figure out how the game out the next week and before i lay it out. maybe they would do it in public at the u.n. which would be an interesting forum. >> and president trump said if the they dont sell the weapons to the saw dis, they will tur...

And like i said, im glad the president didnt tie his hands in terms of what were going to do but it needs to be strong and meaningful. it cant be symbolic. >> steve mnuchin says hes planning to go to that economic summit in riyadh, saudi arabia, next week. do you any the trump administration should participate? and what do you think of the idea that president trump says the incident will not derail any arms sales to saudi arabia? >> well, two separate topics. i dont think we should continue with...

Ties. rubio agrees that there is a benefit to keeping the saudi arms deal. heres what else he told our jake tapper. >> as far as arm sales is, i would not have said it the way the president said it. its important not because of the money, but it provides leverage over future behavior. they dont need our spare parts and training and we can use that to influence behavior, but i would not take cutting that off, off the table. no matter how important they might be to our iranian central gee, our abi...

Project with the public relations with the islamic center and the centers of economic policy. and now he has been taking questions from reporters and now promising severe consequences, and saudi arabia is firing back and warning him against that today and what is your current read of trumps treatment of this issue? >> well, it is good to see trump taking a stronger line, and some of the initial responses were concerning where it didnt seem like he was going to take human rights and democracy ser...

Able to pressure an administration on things like arm sales and going back to the reagan administration, and congress has tried to override and come awfully close to overriding the presidential vetoes, and so i would suggest that this is the embrace of osaudi arabia by the united states, and the beginning of the end of friendly relationship, and it is more going to be practical and hard-headed and less of the embrace by the united states >> and you still feel that way even after hearing the pres...

Affected. that involvement barely survived in the last go round with the national defense authorization act. it certainly will not survive with this kind of accusation if it is true. >> who has the leverage in this transaction? the u.s. or saudi arabia? >> i think both sides here. i think the president has made it clear that he would like to see the armed sales go forward with saudi arabia. not least because a lot of u.s. jobs are involved here but also, president trump does not want russia to s...

It needs to be strong and meaningful not just symbolic and not just words. >> steve mnuchin is planning to still go to the summit. what do you think of the idea that president trump says the incident will not derail any arms sales? >> two different topics. i dont think we should continue as business as usual. he walked into that consulate and he never came out. only two things could have happened is that hes alive and somehow still in there or hes dead and the saudis are the ones who did it. the...

In this relationship. were not as dependent on saudi oil as we once were. they do rely on our arms and intelligence support for operations. we have that over them too. we have a lot of leverage. i hope they are looking at a blend of this. i hope they are looking at how they can compel proper saudi behavior now as the investigation is ongoing. we dont just have to hold these tools in reserve for if it turns tout be true. they can use the tools to compel the saudis to be more transparent and coope...

>> yeah. these days are the key moment because of what you said, the geopolitical realities or the internal realities, geopolitical reality for the 2030 plan, we should all want saudi arabia to succeed in liberalizing itself. >> there are national security concerns south of yemen, the aqap. this is not a one-way street. >> yes. >> as some have suggested. >> thats right. nobody should hope for the failure of this reform plan and as i said a moment ago, the saudis are the swing producers of oil an...