U.S. President Donald Trump upheld his country's relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia despite CIA and American Intelligence findings that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jama Khashoggi.
In a statement released by the White House on Nov. 20, the president highlighted that Saudi Arabia, next to the United States, is the world's largest oil producing nation. According to the president, the Kingdom has worked with Washington in keeping oil prices at reasonable levels.
The president reiterated this message during a press conference, saying that denting the relationship with Saudi Arabia will send oil prices through the roof.
Trump highlighted in his White House speech that Saudi Arabia pledged to spend and invest $450 billion in the United States. The president underscored that such investment will bring in thousands of jobs in the US, tremendous economic development, and most especially "additional wealth" for his country.
Of the $450 billion promised investment, $110 billion will go to the purchase of military equipment from U.S. arms makers such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon among others.
Trump underlined that breaking up with Saudi Arabia is like giving away this billions-worth of investment away to other countries such as China and Russia.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude prices dropped 6.6 percent, its lowest level since October 2017, according to CNBC. The decline happened after Trump's speech at the White House.
Oil prices slumped as much as 7 percent on Tuesday. There had been sell-offs that drove crude oil into a bear territory, CNBC said.
With this development, analysts believed that OPEC oil suppliers, including Saudi Arabia, will be compelled to cut oil production in order to push the oil prices up again. OPEC members and its partner nations are due to meet on Dec. 6 in Vienna, Austria where analysts believe they will agree on reducing oil supply by as much as 1.4 million barrels per day.
Trump's White House speech came days after the CIA concluded that the Saudi Crown Prince knew and may have masterminded the killing of Khashoggi in Istanbul in October.
People who saw the purported CIA report revealed to The Washington Post that a team of 15 Saudi agents went to Istanbul aboard a government aircraft. The report alleged these men had all the intent to murder the journalist as opposed to previous claims that Khashoggi died in an interrogation that went wrong.
The CIA had reportedly been given access to multiple evidence, including a phone call between Crown Prince's brother Khalid bin Salman and Khashoggi. Khalid, who serves as Saudi ambassador to the United States, reportedly advised the journalist to go to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the documents he needed for his planned marriage to his fiancée. The intelligence has yet to clarify whether Khalid knew about the planned killing during the phone call.
Trump, in his speech, highlighted that both King Salman and the Crown Prince denied the validity of the CIA report. While the U.S. president said CIA is continuing its investigation, he cast doubt on its present finding saying: "It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event - maybe he did and may he didn't."
The United States had already sanctioned 17 Saudi agents who are involved in the murder and the disposal of his body.
The journalist, who was in a self-imposed exile in the United States and had been contributing articles to The Washington Post, was dismembered after being tortured.
In his White House speech, however, Trump painted Iran as a much more dangerous country than Saudi Arabia. He said Tehran posed a grave terrorist risk against his country while Saudi pledged billions of dollars in the fight against terrorism.
