Trump stands by crown prince over Khashoggi killing
United States President Donald Trump has disputed that US intelligence officials had concluded that the de facto leader of American ally Saudi Arabia ordered the killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
When asked about the CIA’s evaluation by reporters at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, Trump said: “They didn't conclude. They have feelings certain ways. I have the report, they have not concluded, I don’t know if anyone's going to be able to conclude the crown prince did it.”
Citing vehement denials by the crown prince and king that they were involved, Trump said, “Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a vicious place. The world is a very, very vicious place.”
A Turkish newspaper, meanwhile, has reported that CIA director Gina Haspel signalled to Turkish officials last month that the agency had a recording of a call in which the crown prince gave instructions to “silence” Khashoggi.
Hurriyet journalist Abdulkadir Selvi wrote that the call took place between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his brother, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington.
“It is being said that CIA chief Gina Haspel indicated this during her visit to Turkey,” he wrote, adding that they had discussed Khashoggi.
A Turkish official told Reuters he had no information about such a recording.
Trump said this week he would not impose harsher penalties on the crown prince over the death and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi, a critic of the kingdom’s royal family, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last month.
“My policy is very simple: America first, keep America great again and that’s what I’m doing,” Trump told reporters after a Thanksgiving Day telephone call with members of the military. The crown prince and his father, King Salman, said they did not commit “this atrocity”, Trump said.
“It’s a terrible thing. I dislike it more than you do. But the fact is . . . they create tremendous wealth, really tremendous jobs in their purchases and very importantly, they keep the oil price down.”
American intelligence agencies have concluded that the crown prince ordered the killing in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, according to a US official familiar with the assessment.
Others familiar with the case caution that while it’s likely that the crown prince was involved in the death, questions remain about the extent of his culpability.