WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st October, 2018) US President Donald Trump should halt discussions with Saudi Arabia on a bilateral civil nuclear agreement after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a group of US Republican Senators said in a letter on Wednesday.
"The ongoing revelations about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as certain Saudi actions related to Yemen and Lebanon, have raised further serious concerns about the transparency, accountability, and judgment of current decisionmakers in Saudi Arabia," Senators Marco Rubio, Todd Young, Cory Gardner, Rand Paul and Dean Heller said in their letter to Trump.
The lawmakers recalled that they had serious reservations about the nuclear agreement even before Khasaoggi's murder.
"In particular, we remain concerned that the Saudi Government has refused, for many years, to consider any agreement that includes so-called 'Gold Standard' requirements against pursuing technologies to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium-laden spent nuclear fuel," they wrote.
The senators also referred to a civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reached in 2009. The deal has created a so-called "Gold Standard" whereby Dubai committed to not pursing uranium enrichment, plutonium reprocessing, and other nuclear fuel-making activities that could push it closer to a nuclear weapon.�
The US lawmakers urged Trump to suspend any negotiations with Saudi Arabia on the matter "for the foreseeable future" and promised to advance a joint resolution of disapproval to block agreement at this time.
Saudi Arabia has long been one of the United States' key partners in the middle East. Over the recent months, Riyadh, which is seeking to expand its energy portfolio, has been in talks with Washington over a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement that would allow Saudi Arabia to pursue its civilian nuclear projects.
Khashoggi, was working as a columnist for The Washington Post at the time of his murder. The journalist was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.� Riyadh has admitted that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate and has said that 18 people have been arrested over their suspected involvement in the incident.
