‘punishment for sAuDi if JournAList WAs KiLLeD’
Khashoggi, a critic of Riyadh who wrote columns for the disappeared on 2 October after visiting the consulate.
US President Donald Trump said in a CBS interview on Saturday that there would be “severe punishment” for Saudi Arabia if it turns out that missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Trump said he did not want to block military sales to Saudi Arabia, one option that has rattled US defense contractors, saying, “I don’t want to hurt jobs.”
Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Riyadh and a U.S. resident who wrote columns for the Washington Post, dis- appeared on 2 October after visiting the consulate.
“We’re going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment,” Trump said. Asked whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave an order to kill Khashoggi, Trump said, “Nobody knows yet, but we’ll probably be able to find out.” Trump added in excerpts of the “60 Minutes” interview that will air on Sunday, “We would be very upset and angry if that were the case.”
Trump said there was much at stake with Khashoggi case, “maybe especially so” because he was a reporter.
Major US defense contractors have expressed concern to the Trump administration that lawmakers angered by Khashoggi’s disappearance will block further arms deals with Riyadh. But Trump said he did not want to lose military sales to Saudi Arabia that are coveted by US competitors Russia and China, also exporters of military equipment. “I don’t want to lose an order like that,” he said, mentioning the companies Boeing, Lockheed and Raytheon. “And you know what, there are other ways of punishing,” he said, without elaborating.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s investigation into the disappearance of Khashoggi has revealed recordings made on his Apple Watch purportedly indicating he was tortured and killed, a Turkish newspaper reported on Saturday.
The report in the pro-government Sabah daily, which could not immediately be verified, emerged after a delegation from Saudi Arabia arrived in Turkey for a joint investigation into his disappearance. “The moments when Khashoggi was interrogated, tortured and murdered were recorded in the Apple Watch’s memory,” the paper said, adding that the watch had synched with his iPhone, which his fiancee was carrying outside the consulate.
Two senior Turkish officials previously told Reuters that Khashoggi had been wearing a black Apple watch when he entered the consulate and that it was connected to a mobile phone he left outside. However, it was not clear whether data from Khashoggi’s watch could have been transmitted to his phone outside, or how investigators could have retrieved it without obtaining the watch themselves.
Technology experts say it is highly unlikely the watch could have recorded actions inside the embassy and uploaded them to an iCloud account. Most models of the watch require that it be within 30 to 50 feet (9-15 metres) of the iPhone that it is paired with to upload data to Apple’s iCloud, they said. Battling political and personal accusations and currently engaged in an image fight with feminists, US President Donald Trump has found a support from a woman, First Lady Melania Trump, who brushed aside criticism against him saying, “my husband is doing an incredible job”.
In a television interview to ABC News, the First Lady brushed off allegations of her husband’s rumoured affairs, saying she had “much more important things to think about”.
Melania Trump spoke with ABC News’ Tom Llamas while on her first solo tour through Africa.
“I’m a mother and a First Lady, and I have much more important things to think about and to do…It is not