American weapons manufacturers have expressed concerns to the White House that Congress might block further arms deals with Saudi Arabia over the suspected murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, according to reports.
Democrats and some Republicans have indicated that the Khashoggi case had created resistance in Congress to proposed weapons sales to the Saudis that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.
The most direct call for punishing Riyadh came from Republican Senator Rand Paul, who tweeted on Thursday that the Saudi killings of dissidents and opposition journalists would not stop unless the US stopped “arming and assisting” the regime.
The Saudis will keep killing civilians and journalists as long as we keep arming and assisting them. The President should immediately halt arms sales and military support to Saudi Arabia.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) October 11, 2018
Even before that, some lawmakers had…