The training program for Saudi soldiers on US soil was called into question Sunday (December 8th) in the United States, two days after a Saudi Arabian soldier killed three people at a naval air station in Florida.

Rare enough in these times of destitution, in an America divided as never politically, elected Republicans and Democrats agreed on a point two days after the shooting: the military exchanges between Washington and Ryad must be examined closely.

Hundreds of Saudi servicemen each year train in the US armed forces, illustrating the strong ties that unite the two allied countries.

The training program "must be suspended" until the light is fully on the events in Florida, said Sunday morning on Fox News Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close President Donald Trump.

Mohammed Alshamrani, 21, a second lieutenant in the Saudi Air Force, opened fire Friday with a handgun in a classroom at the Pensacola base, leaving three dead and eight wounded, before to be shot by the police.

"It looks like terrorism"

The investigators were still looking two days later to determine the motives of the attacker, who would have posted on Twitter before his attack hostile messages to the United States, and if he had acted alone.

"We are working, as in most shootings investigations, with the presumption that it may be an act of terrorism," Rachel Rojas, who oversees the investigation, told a press conference on Sunday. of the FBI.

The White House National Security Advisor, Robert O'Brien, went further, saying that "it looks like terrorism." "It will be necessary to see what the investigation of the FBI shows," he added Sunday on CBS.

"Saudi Arabia is an ally, but there is something fundamentally wrong here, we need to slow down the program and reassess it," said Lindsey Graham.

Another Republican, Matt Gaetz, who represents Congress in Florida where the attack took place, also called Sunday, on the ABC channel, to "put the program on hold".

Monitor Saudi students in the United States

"We should not be welcoming new Saudi students until we have complete confidence in our monitoring process," he said, stressing the need to "monitor their activities to make There is no radicalization.

US Defense Minister Mark Esper said Sunday on Fox News that he had asked for "a review of the screening procedures of foreign nationals coming (in training) to the United States," while defending the usefulness of this type of programs.

"We have something that our potential adversaries do not have, like Russia and China," he said. "The ability to bring foreign students here to train with us, to understand American culture, is very important to us in order to build these long-term relationships that contribute to our security."

Links with Saudi Arabia denounced

The Democratic opposition denounced the Trump government's policy towards Saudi Arabia, accusing it of putting its economic and military interests ahead of the respect of human rights.

"The relationship we have is unacceptable," White House candidate Cory Booker told ABC on Sunday, citing American planes "refueling their military planes to drop bombs made in the United States on Yemen."

For his part, Adam Schiff, Democratic Chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives, said Sunday on CBS that the Congress would put pressure on Saudi Arabia so that it also conducts a "full investigation" on the shooting in Florida.

"And I would rather the US president, rather than speaking on behalf of the Saudi government, ask for answers," he added.