Chicago Sun-Times (Sunday)

Trump administra­tion denies reaching conclusion on Khashoggi killing

- BY DEB RIECHMANN

WASHINGTON — The Trump administra­tion denied on Saturday that it had reached a final determinat­ion in the death of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi.

After President Donald Trump called his CIA chief and top diplomat from Air Force One as he flew to survey wildfire damage in California, the State Department released a statement saying “recent reports indicating that the U.S. government has made a final conclusion are inaccurate.”

American intelligen­ce agencies have concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey, according to a U.S. official familiar with the assessment. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity Friday. The conclusion was first reported by The Washington Post.

The Saudi government has denied the claim. Department spokeswoma­n Heather Nauert said in the statement Saturday that the government was “determined to hold all those responsibl­e for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi accountabl­e” and that “there remain numerous unanswered questions with respect to the murder.”

Trump told reporters before he left the White House for California that, when it came to the crown prince, “as of this moment we were told that he did not play a role. We’re going to have to find out what they have to say.”

In his remarks, the president spoke of Saudi Arabia as “a truly spectacula­r ally in terms of jobs and economic developmen­t.”

“I have to take a lot of things into considerat­ion” when deciding what measures to take against the kingdom, he said.

Trump has called the killing a botched operation that was carried out very poorly and has said “the cover-up was one of the worst coverups in the history of cover-ups.”

But he has resisted calls to cut off arms sales to the kingdom and has been reluctant to antagonize the Saudi rulers. Trump considers the Saudis vital allies in his Mideast agenda.

Khashoggi, a Saudi who lived in the United States, was a columnist for the Post and often criticized the royal family. He was killed Oct. 2 at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish and Saudi authoritie­s say he was killed inside the consulate by a team from the kingdom after he went there to get marriage documents.

 ??  ?? Jamal Khashoggi
Jamal Khashoggi

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