Saudi punishment for the killing of a journalist. Calls from the US SecDef and SecState along with the French Def Minister to stop the war in Yemen within 30 days...

Interesting.

I might be (probably) reaching here but remember the outrage over the killing of the journalist?  Well it looks like the punishment is NOT an arms embargo (I watched with interest while the Canadian Prime Minister twisted himself in knots first condemning the killing with the threat of arms sanctions and then untwisting to explain why he wouldn't/couldn't) but rather telling them to end a war that they're losing.  A war that is costing them big bucks and a war in which the media has long ago turned against them.

Check this out via NBC News.

 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called for a cessation of hostilities in Yemen and said U.N.-led negotiations to end the civil war should begin next month.

In a statement released Tuesday, Pompeo said missile and drone strikes by Iran-allied Houthi rebels against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should stop, and the Saudi-led coalition must cease airstrikes in all populated areas of Yemen.

The phrasing here is interesting.  The Saudi led coalition is being called upon to cease all air strikes?  Wait!  Aren't we providing support for those airstrikes thru tanking support?  But it gets better.

 U.N. special envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths said earlier this month that the United Nations hoped to resume consultations between the warring sides by November.

Both Pompeo and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis voiced support for the U.N. effort.

Mattis, addressing a forum in Washington on Tuesday, defended U.S. efforts to help reduce casualties by the Saudi-led coalition and said all sides needed to take meaningful steps toward a cease-fire and negotiations in the next 30 days.

Story here.

What he means is that we sold them precision munitions so they wouldn't carpet bomb Houthi populations.

France, not wanting to be left out delivered this message via their Defense Minister...via France 24

 Yemen's war must stop, France's Defence Minister Florence Parly said Tuesday, toughening Paris' stance as photographs of starving children trigger outrage around the world.

"It is more than time that this war ended and it is also important -- even France's priority -- that the humanitarian situation must improve and that humanitarian aid can get through," Parly told BFM television and RMC radio.
"This military situation is an effective dead-end so this war must stop. That's a priority."

Story here. 

Don't get me wrong.  This dude's death is tragic.  I don't know why he would feel comfortable walking into the Saudi consulate, but at the end of the day he happily walked into a trap that in hindsight he should have seen a million miles away.

That makes me believe that he thought he had protection.  Not that old fashioned protection that comes from being a resident of the US but handler type protection.

Regardless, I believe that this is the grand punishment headed Saudi Arabia's way.

They're being told to knock it off when it comes to war that they were badly losing and was draining the coffers of their country.

Almost makes you wish we had powerful neighbors allies buyers of our oil protectors  friends that could tell us the same with Afghanistan and Syria doesn't it?