US WARNS SAUDI OF CONSEQUENCES

Donand Trump says it appears Khashoggi is dead

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said “it certainly looks” like missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, nearly confirming what has been feared for some time now, and warned of “severe” consequences if the Saudi government is found responsible for it.

“It certainly looks that way to me,” Trump told reporters in response to a question if he believed Khashoggi was dead. “It's very sad. Certainly looks that way.”

“Unless the miracle of all miracles happens, I would acknowledge that he’s dead,” he said in an interview to The New York Times. “That’s based on everything — intelligence coming from every side.”

Trump had been briefed just hours before by secretary of state Mike Pompeo on his meetings with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and crown prince Mohammad bin Salman in Riyadh and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara in connection with Khashoggi.

There has been no official word on the fate of the journalist from Saudi Arabia, his home country, the US, his country of residence in self-imposed exile since 2017, or Turkey, where he was last seen, entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. But Turkish media has reported, based on government leaks, that Khashoggi was dead within hours of entering the consulate - tortured, killed and dismembered by a team of 15 men that arrived the same day, armed with a bone saw. There are audio and video recordings of the incident, it was reported. Neither Trump nor Pompeo gave any indication before about the possible outcome of the probe.