特朗普就卡舒吉案发表声明，力挺沙特

WASHINGTON — President Trump defied his intelligence agencies and ample circumstantial evidence to declare his unswerving loyalty to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, asserting that the crown prince’s culpability for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi might never be known.

华盛顿——周二，特朗普总统不顾情报机构的结论和大量的间接证据，对沙特阿拉伯宣告了他坚定不移的忠诚。他声称，也许永远不会知道该国王储对贾迈勒·卡舒吉(Jamal Khashoggi)之死是否负有责任。

In a remarkable statement that appeared calculated to end the debate over the American response to the murder of Mr. Khashoggi, Mr. Trump said, “It could very well be that the crown prince had knowledge of this tragic event — maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”

在一份不同寻常的声明中——它似乎旨在结束美国对卡舒吉事件如何作出回应的争论，特朗普说，“很有可能王储事先知道这起悲剧事件——也许他知道，也许他不知道!”

“We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi,” the president continued. “In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

“我们可能永远也无法知道关于贾迈尔·卡舒吉被谋杀的全部事实，”特朗普继续说，“无论如何，我们的关系是和沙特阿拉伯王国的关系。”

Still, in its 631 words in eight paragraphs, punctuated by seven exclamation points and a casual style that sounded like Mr. Trump’s off-the-cuff musings, the statement was a cogent summary of the Trump worldview: remorselessly transactional, heedless of allies, determined to put America’s interests first and founded on a theory of moral equivalence.

然而，从8段631个词、7个感叹号点缀其间，以及一种像是特朗普即时思考的随性风格可以看出来，这份声明是对特朗普世界观的一个有力总结：冷血交易，置盟友于不顾，坚决把美国利益放在首位，并且建立在一种道德等值的理论之上。

His statement, which aides said Mr. Trump dictated himself and reflected his deeply held views, came only days after the C.I.A. concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an ally of the White House, had authorized the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and columnist for The Washington Post.

特朗普的助手表示，这份声明由特朗普口述，反映了他根深蒂固的观点。就在几天前，中情局得出结论，认为白宫盟友、王储穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼(Mohammed bin Salman)批准杀害了沙特记者、《华盛顿邮报》专栏作家卡舒吉。

Mr. Trump’s words seemed certain to alienate Turkey, which has raised the pressure on Saudi Arabia to offer a full accounting of what happened to Mr. Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. They also drew outrage from lawmakers and human rights activists, for whom the grisly killing has become a test of America’s willingness to overlook the crimes of a strategically valuable ally.

特朗普的言论似乎肯定会疏远土耳其。该国已向沙特阿拉伯施压，要求就卡舒吉在沙特驻伊斯坦布尔领事馆内的遭遇作出全面说明。这番言论还引起了立法者和人权活动人士的愤慨，在他们看来，这起可怕的杀戮事件考验美国是否会对一个具有战略价值的盟友所犯下的罪行视而不见。

Far from criticizing Prince Mohammed or other Saudi leaders, the president came close to embracing the narrative of Mr. Khashoggi’s critics in the kingdom: that he was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, an “enemy of the state” bent on undermining the House of Saud.

但特朗普非但没有批评王储穆罕默德或其他沙特领导人，反而欣然接受了卡舒吉在沙特国内的批评者的说法：他是穆斯林兄弟会(Muslim Brotherhood)的一员，这个“国家敌人”一心想破坏沙特王室。

“My decision is in no way based on that,” Mr. Trump insisted. “This is an unacceptable and horrible crime. King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.”

“我的决定绝不是基于此，”特朗普坚称，“这是一起不可接受的、可怕的罪行。沙特国王萨勒曼(Salman)和王储默罕默德·本·萨勒曼坚决否认对策划或执行谋杀卡舒吉的行动有任何了解。”

Punishing Saudi Arabia, he said, would put at risk $110 billion in military sales to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and other military contractors, as well as $340 billion in other investments, which the Saudis had agreed to make since he became president.

他说，惩罚沙特阿拉伯会给波音、洛克希德·马丁(Lockheed Martin)、雷神(Raytheon)和其他军事承包商带来1100亿美元的军售风险，还会波及自他就任总统以来，沙特同意进行的3400亿美元的其他投资。

Economists and military analysts said those numbers were so exaggerated as to be fanciful.

经济学家和军事分析人士表示，这些数字过于夸张，简直是异想天开。

“The world is a very dangerous place!” Mr. Trump began, before seguing into a critique of Iran’s malign behavior in the Middle East, blaming it for killing Americans, sponsoring terrorist organizations, and conducting a “bloody proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen.”

“世界是一个非常危险的地方!”特朗普在声明一开始说道，然后他开始批评伊朗在中东的恶行，指责它杀害美国人，资助恐怖组织，以及在也门发动“针对沙特阿拉伯的血腥代理人战争”。

As if to illustrate the president’s point, the Treasury Department on Tuesday morning announced sanctions against nine targets in what officials said was an elaborate Iranian-Russian plot to sell oil to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and use the proceeds to finance Iranian-backed militant groups, like Hamas and Hezbollah.

似乎为了说明总统的观点，财政部周二上午宣布，对九个目标实施制裁。官员们表示，这是一个精心谋划的伊朗—俄罗斯阴谋，通过向叙利亚总统巴沙尔·阿萨德(Bashar al-Assad)的政权出售石油，然后将收益用于援助伊朗支持的激进组织，如哈马斯(Hamas)和真主党(Hezbollah)。

Mr. Trump left open the possibility that Prince Mohammed was aware of Mr. Khashoggi’s killing — essentially suggesting that the prince had lied to him in multiple phone conversations.

特朗普没有排除王储默罕默德知道卡舒吉被杀的可能性——这实际上表明，这位王储在多次电话中对他撒谎。

In private exchanges with aides, Mr. Trump has rolled his eyes when asked whether he believes the prince could not have been aware of the complex operation to kill Mr. Khashoggi, which involved multiple teams of operatives — some of whom had close ties to the prince — flying to Turkey on private jets and turning a diplomatic facility into a slaughterhouse.

与助手私下交流时，当被问及他是否相信王储真有可能不了解这个复杂行动时——涉及多个特工团队，其中一些特工与王储紧密联系，他们搭乘私人飞机前往土耳其，将一处外交场所变成了屠宰场——特朗普翻了个白眼。