Why US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Saudi Arabia visit over missing journalist was a diplomatic mission impossible
• President Trump sent Pompeo to stress the severity of the case of Jamal Khashoggi, who is thought to be dead
• Analysts say he was too deferential and sent the message that America would help the kingdom emerge from the crisis
Almost six months ago, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo set out to revive the State Department’s “swagger”. But his rebranding efforts may have been undercut by his emergency visit to Saudi Arabia this week to discuss the disappearance and possible death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
President Donald Trump dispatched Pompeo to stress the importance the United States attaches to the case, but the diplomat left any blunt words for the Saudis to private conversations.
In his brief public appearances with the Saudi leaders, Pompeo was smiling and courteous, showing no signs of moral affront over what may have happened to the journalist, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post who has not been seen since he visited the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to obtain a document. Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by a Saudi team linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, commonly known as MBS, whom Pompeo met twice in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.
Former diplomats and foreign policy experts say they did not expect Pompeo to use a public platform to express moral outrage over Khashoggi’s fate. To do so could have undermined his ability to deliver a stern message in private.
“The smiles are because when you go into a meeting, if you want to be tough you want to be listened to,” said Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy who spent more than three decades as a diplomat, most of it in the Middle East. “You’re not there to do a morality lecture, no matter how much you believe it. You’re there to say, ‘you’re in deep trouble and you have to get out’.”