Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Saudis promise probe into slaying
Mattis said he is confident the kingdom will conduct a complete investigation into Khashoggi’s death.
PRAGUE — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said he received assurances from Saudi Arabia’s top diplomat that the kingdom would conduct a full and complete investigation into the slaying of Saudi journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
Mattis met Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir over lunch Saturday at a security conference in Bahrain. Their discussion came after Mattis condemned Khashoggi’s killing during a speech at the event and warned that such extralegal behavior by nations risked destabilizing the Middle East.
“We discussed it,” Mattis said, recounting the conversation with Jubeir while traveling to the Czech Republic on Sunday. Their discussion, Mattis said, underscored “the need for transparency, a full and complete investigation.”
“He said, ‘We need to know what happened.’ It was very collaborative, in agreement,” Mattis added.
The lunchtime discussion came after Jubeir called the global reaction to Khashoggi’s killing “fairly hysterical” in response to questions about the murder at the security conference. The top Saudi diplomat suggested people were jumping to conclusions about guilt before Riyadh had finished its investigation.
“We will know the truth,” Jubeir said.
Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government who had fled the kingdom and taken up residency in the United States, entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2 to retrieve paperwork that he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee.
Turkish officials say a “hit squad” of Saudi agents dispatched from the Persian Gulf killed Khashoggi in the consulate and dismembered his body before returning to Saudi soil. Turkey says it has secret recordings of the events, which Turkish officials recently played for CIA Director Gina Haspel.
In particular, the incident has raised questions about whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a target of Khashoggi’s criticism, knew in advance about the gruesome plot.
On another leg of his trip, Mattis said his talks with European allies so far have not resulted in any suggestions of how to deal with Russia’s violation of a Cold War-era arms-control pact other than for the United States to withdraw.