Trump declines to blame Saudi prince over Khashoggi killing despite reports CIA hold him responsible
Donald Trump has declined to say that Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Arabian crown prince, ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi despite new reports that the CIA has reached that conclusion.
The US president said on Saturday that he would get a briefing from the agency on the topic soon, adding: “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.”
Mr Trump also called the Saudis "a truly spectacular ally in terms of jobs and economic development," and added that, when deciding how to act over the killing, he has "to take a lot of things into consideration".
He later said he expected a full report on Monday or Tuesday.
The State Department also released a statement saying the US government had not yet reached a final decision about who was responsible.
The comments came the day after both The Washington Post and The New York Times reported that the CIA had intelligence linking the crown prince to the operation that led to Mr Khashoggi’s death. The crown prince has always denied involvement.
Mr Trump aligned himself with the Saudis after taking office, seeing the country as a key ally in his determination to counter Iran's influence in the Middle East. He has appeared reluctant to directly criticise the crown prince.
Mr Khashoggi, who wrote columns for The Washington Post and lived in Virginia, was killed in the Saudi consulate in Instanbul, Turkey, last month. A group of 15 Saudi officials were at the consulate when the killing took place.
The Saudi stance on the killing has repeatedly changed, from initially denying that he had died at the consulate to claiming that he had been accidentally strangled. Now a Saudi public prosecutor has said the journalist was injected with a fatal amount of a drug and suggested the death penalty for five of those officials involved.
The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that US intelligence agencies reviewed a phone call that the prince's brother, Khalid bin Salman, had with Mr Khashoggi.
The newspaper said the prince's brother, who is the current Saudi ambassador to the United States, told Mr Khashoggi he would be safe in going to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the documents he needed to get married.
The newspaper said it was not known whether the ambassador knew Mr Khashoggi would be killed. But it said he made the call at the direction the crown prince, and the call was intercepted by US intelligence.
The ambassador responded on Twitter, saying: “As we told the Washington Post the last contact I had with Mr. Khashoggi was via text on Oct 26 2017.
“I never talked to him by phone and certainly never suggested he go to Turkey for any reason. I ask the US government to release any information regarding this claim."
