Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that it would react to any “threat” against it, as its stock market collapsed following US President Donald Trump’s warning of “severe punishment” following the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a contributor to the Washington Post, was murdered in the premises of the Saudi embassy in Turkey.
The Riyadh Stock Exchange fell Sunday by 7% early in the session and following the threats of the US President. This is the biggest fall of the Saudi financial center since December 2014. Some 182 of its 186 registered shares have recorded losses in the early afternoon of Sunday. The market offset some of the losses, closing down 3.5% for the day.
The journalist has not been seen since he joined the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2nd. The Turkish authorities fear that Saudi agents have killed and dismembered Khashoggi after he entered the consulate. The kingdom called the allegations “unfounded”, but did not provide any evidence that the journalist left the consultancy.
Since then, pressures and convictions have followed each other. The investment forum that the kingdom planned to organize soon under the name “Davos in the desert” is experiencing a series of cancellations. In an interview published on Sunday, Trump said in CBS ’60-minute show that the consequences of Saudi Arabia’s involvement would be “serious”. It is the whole aggressive strategy of the Crown Prince reformer Mohamed Bin Salman (MBS) who is threatened by this case worthy of the KGB’s red notebooks.