WASHINGTON: US Secr­etary of State Michael Pompeo said on Saturday that Saudi Arabia has been an “enormous support” to the United States on all major global issues and Washington wants to maintain that relationship.

Pompeo also said in the interview that the US will continue to provide military support to the kingdom in the war in Yemen.

The Trump administration faces tremendous domestic and international pressure to review its relationship with Saudi Arabia after Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate Istanbul in October this year.

In an interview to CNN, Pompeo was asked if he could confidently tell Khashoggi’s four children that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was not involved in his murder, Pompeo said he had “read every piece of intelligence” in possession of the US authorities and concluded “there’s no direct evidence linking him to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi”.

When CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Pompeo if US military support to the Saudis in Yemen will continue, the secretary said: “The programme that we’re involved in today we intend to continue.”

Explaining why the United States wanted to maintain its strategic and operational relationships with the kingdom, Pompeo said: “Today we’re working with the Saudis in Afghanistan, we’re working with the Saudis to push back against Ayatollah Khamenei … they are an enormous support to us.”

He pointed out that the US-Saudi relationship “has mattered” for 70 years across Republican and Democrat administrations alike. “It remains an important relationship and we’re aiming to keep that relationship with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2018