A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
For more on Trump's meeting today with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, we called up Jason Rezaian. He is the director of Press Freedom Initiatives at The Washington Post, the paper where Jamal Khashoggi was a columnist, when, according to a U.S. intelligence report, he was murdered in an operation approved by bin Salman. Jason, you wrote an opinion for The Washington Post, where you described this visit as a costly mistake. What is that cost?
JASON REZAIAN: Think it's a mistake for the United States to greenlight the type of behavior that Mohammed bin Salman has been guilty of multiple times. It's a signal to friends and foes alike that you can literally get away with murder if you're the right kind of partner to the United States.
MART脥NEZ: Is it maybe more of a moral mistake as opposed to maybe a different kind of mistake because Saudi Arabia is so entrenched in world economics, in finance and considering what they produce for the world, that, you know, is it maybe more that than anything else?
REZAIAN: I think, you know, first and foremost, yes, it's a moral mistake. But we are the United States of America. We are still the last time I checked the leading superpower, and Saudi Arabia is not on par with us. This is a client state. When you have that relationship with smaller countries, even if they possess massive amounts of critically important natural resources and maybe arguably, you know, the most important natural resource, they don't get to dictate the terms of the relationship. We've allowed that to happen in this case, and this young man, who has amassed incredible power in a short period of time and wielded it recklessly, irresponsibly and murderously, if our own intelligence community is to be believed, that's problematic, not just on a moral level, but on a strategic and geopolitical one as well.
MART脥NEZ: President Trump has not believed the United States intelligence in other cases, too. With Vladimir Putin is another example that stands out. When it comes to this particular relationship, is there any way that once President Trump is no longer in office, that the United States can maybe reset the relationship?
REZAIAN: There was certainly an opportunity to reset it during the Biden administration, and President Biden chose not to do that. So I think, yes, there's always an opportunity to reset relations and change the course of relations with any country. But in the case of Saudi Arabia, that has not happened. And I and my colleagues at the Washington Post will continue to remind you that one of our colleagues in the not-so-distant past was murdered, and the U.S. intelligence community believes that he was murdered by order of Mohammed bin Salman. And that's not something that we can just kind of wipe under the rug or forget about.
MART脥NEZ: You met bin Salman when he talked with The Washington Post's editorial board. That was back in 2018, which was six months before the disappearance and murder of Khashoggi. What was your takeaway from him back then?
REZAIAN: Well, it was an off-the-record setting, so I won't go into too many details, but, you know, I was struck by his lack of humility, his apparent willingness to lie about things that were easily debunkable and I think this potential for a lot of hubris, a lot of people in the room in Washington and in the United States were charmed by this young English speaking, affable prince. But none of those attributes can really undo the incredible damage that has been done on his watch.
MART脥NEZ: Now, you end your piece in The Washington Post by writing, quote, "we will be dealing with this decision's fallout for a long time." How so?
REZAIAN: Mohammed bin Salman is 40 years old. He got Saudi Arabia into a protracted conflict with Yemen that was not something that they got out of very easily. He's courted conflict with Iran, and every time comes to the United States, asking - begging for more help. If that's the kind of relationship this is going to be, we'll be cleaning up messes left and right for a long time because, in all likelihood, he'll be around for the better part of the next half century.
MART脥NEZ: Jason Rezaian is the director of Press Freedom Initiatives at The Washington Post and the paper's former correspondent in Tehran. Jason, thank you very much for your thoughts on this.
REZAIAN: Thanks, A. I appreciate it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR鈥檚 programming is the audio record.
