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Opinion
Hussein Ibish

After Journalist’s Disappearance, U.S. Must Reset Saudi Relations

The accusation that Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey shouldn’t end Washington’s ties to Riyadh, but it cannot go unanswered.

Transactional.

Transactional.

Photographer: Pool/Getty Images North America
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The disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and writer for the Washington Post, is the biggest crisis in U.S.-Saudi relations in years. While the Trump administration is resistant, unless the emerging narrative about what happened changes, a clear American response will be inevitable and warranted.

But we need to be clear about what we want and why we want it, and to accept our own responsibility for the international climate in which this has occurred.