Steve Mnuchin Bails On Saudi Conference Amid Khashoggi Murder Outrage
Image by Getty Images
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday said he would no longer attend next week’s investment conference in Saudi Arabia, as the Trump administration awaited the outcome of investigations into missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Mnuchin announced the decision in a post on Twitter following a meeting with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who recently returned from meetings with top leaders in Riyadh and Ankara.
“Just met with @realDonaldTrump and @SecPompeo and we have decided, I will not be participating in the Future Investment Initiative summit in Saudi Arabia,” Mnuchin wrote on Twitter.
The Saudis have said they plan to move forward with the conference, scheduled for Oct. 23-25, despite a wave of cancellations by high-profile business, government and media leaders.
Mnuchin’s withdrawal comes after top financial, trade and foreign officials from Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands also dropped out.
Trump has urged patience in the wake of U.S.-based Khashoggi’s disappearance earlier this month during a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and said he took the matter seriously.
Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi – a Washington Post columnist who was a strong critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – was murdered at the consulate and his body chopped up and removed.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
