MANAMA, Bahrain—U.S. and other government’s officials said the uproar over a Saudi journalist’s grisly death has put Saudi Arabia’s ability to rally others against Iran at risk, posing a challenge for the Trump administration’s Middle East policy.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattishighlighted those worries this weekend with rare public criticism of an ally, telling a security conference here that Saudi Arabia’s actions were destabilizing for the entire region “at a time when it needs it most.”
Mr. Mattis stopped short of blaming the Saudi leadership for writer Jamal Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 death, but his comments drew attention to how the gruesome murder—and the kingdom’s handling of it—has strained the Saudi leadership’s close ties with President Donald Trump. The Trump administration has put the kingdom at the center of a Middle East policy largely defined by efforts to contain Iranian influence.
The U.S. and other Western governments now are trying to balance the political cost of supporting the monarchy with the need to preserve the kingdom’s role as their most important Arab ally. Arab and Western allies worry the kingdom will have trouble making the moral argument that it must lead efforts to counter Iran, say government officials and experts.
“They are worried because Saudi Arabia anchors the relationship with the United States…and because of regional stability,” said a senior Western official who tracks the Middle East, referring the kingdom’s Arab allies. “They think it weakens Saudi Arabia.”
Saudi officials have sought to show allies that the Khashoggi incident is an aberration.
Speaking at the same Bahrain conference, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir described Saudi Arabia as a beacon of light combating Iran’s “vision of darkness.” He dismissed the public response to Mr. Khashoggi’s death as “hysterical.”
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week called Mr. Khashoggi’s death a “hideous incident” and vowed justice.
Saudi officials have struggled to present a credible narrative of what happened, as Turkish authorities released information on the continuing investigation bit-by-bit, contradicting the kingdom’s initial denials of wrongdoing.
Saudi authorities have so far detained 18 people in connection with Mr. Khashoggi’s death and called it “premeditated,” but denied that Prince Mohammed, the country’s day-to-day ruler, played any role—a view some world leaders have greeted with skepticism, including Mr. Trump. Turkish and Western officials suspect the operation would have required the approval from the highest level of government.
The U.S. State Department has imposed travel restrictions on 21 Saudi government employees suspected of involvement in the killing. More penalties could follow, including financial sanctions aimed at human-rights violators, a possibility raised by U.S. lawmakers.
Some regional allies rallied behind Saudi Arabia.
King Abdullah II of Jordan and Pakistan’s Imran Khan—both recipients of Saudi financial aid—showed up at Riyadh’s premier investment conference after American and European executives and officials pulled out over the Khashoggi crisis.
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But Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, one of Saudi Arabia’s closest Arab partners, was invited but didn’t go, according to two people familiar with the matter. A spokesman for Mr. Sisi didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Privately, Gulf and other Arab allies expressed worry the Khashoggi murder could compromise their own relations with the West.
“This is outrageous because this is not the kind of behavior that we are used to seeing from Saudi Arabia,” Mohammed Alyahya, an independent Saudi political analyst. “This is the kind of thing Iran and Syria do.”
Mr. Alyahya noted that, while Saudi Arabia’s regional goals remain unchanged, its priority right now is domestic: overhauling the security apparatus to ensure such an incident won’t happen again.
Saudi-U.S. relations had improved after Mr. Trump took office, buoyed by shared concerns over Iran and the desire to scrap the Obama administration-led deal to lift sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, which Mr. Trump did in May.
Riyadh’s role against Iran is most prominent inside Yemen, where it is leading a military coalition against Houthi rebels aligned with Iran. U.S. and Gulf officials say Iran backs the rebels with weapons and training, an allegation Tehran denies.
The war has become a humanitarian disaster and thousands of civilians have been killed under the Saudi-led bombing campaign. Mr. Khashoggi’s death has resulted in new scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers the Saudi’s conduct of the war and U.S. military support for it, including air refueling and intelligence.
The White House still publicly support a Saudi arms deal worth billions of dollars, but lawmakers from both parties have suggested they would consider blocking aspects of the deal, which include precision-guided munitions and other weaponry.
The Khashoggi killing “will require Saudi Arabia to make a much stronger public case for why Iran’s influence is malign and destabilizing while theirs is in everybody’s interest,” said Kori Schake, deputy director-general at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday called for the circumstances surrounding the journalist’s killing to be “fully investigated and brought to light, regardless of considerable political consequences.” Germany has already vowed to suspend all weapons sales to the kingdom until there is more clarity on what happened to Mr. Khashoggi.
Washington’s calculation is complex. As grave as the Khashoggi killing has become to the U.S.-Saudi relationship, there are significant implications for any moves the U.S. makes that could be seen as an overreaction in Riyadh and an opening for American competitors.
Riyadh could react angrily to any American downgrading of Saudi Arabia and persuade other Gulf allies to cool relations with the U.S., perhaps severing military exercises, for example.
“We’ve had a close relationship with Saudi Arabia for decades, and its geopolitical importance impacts multiple strategic security, energy, and regional interests,” said Norman Roule, a retired U.S. intelligence official with three decades of regional experience. “A fracture of the U.S.-Saudi relationship would be viewed as a gift by Moscow, Tehran and Beijing.”
Write to Margherita Stancati at margherita.stancati@wsj.com and Gordon Lubold at Gordon.Lubold@wsj.com
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