Khashoggi likely dead, says Trump
WASHINGTON/ AN KARA: President Donald Trump said he presumes missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead and that the US response to Saudi Arabia will likely be “very severe” but that he still wanted to get to the bottom of what exactly happened.
Turkish police are searching a forest on the outskirts of Istanbul and a city near the Sea of Marmara for the remains of Khashoggi more than two weeks after he vanished after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, two senior Turkish officials said.
Trump, who has forged closer ties with Saudi Arabia and the 33-yearold Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that Khashoggi, a US resident and Washington Post columnist, had likely been killed.
“It certainly looks that way to me. It’s very sad,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One on a political trip.
In an interview with the New York Times on Thursday, Trump based his acknowledgment that Khashoggi was dead on intelligence reports.
Turkish officials have said they believe Khashoggi was murdered at the consulate and his body chopped up and removed.
Riyadh strongly denies the allegations and said it is investigating the disappearance of the journalist, who was critical of Saudi rulers, calling for reforms.
Trump spoke hours after receiv- ing an update from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the results of Pompeo’s emergency talks in Saudi Arabia and Turkey this week.
In the New York Times interview, Trump also expressed confidence in intelligence reports that suggest a high-level Saudi role in the suspected killing of Khashoggi.
Trump said, however, it was still “a little bit early” to draw definitive conclusions about who may have been behind it.
Pompeo told reporters that he advised Trump that Saudi Arabia should be given a few more days to complete its probe into the disappearance, which has caused an international outcry and strained Saudi relations with Western countries and corporations.