Alwaght- US president Donald Trump called on Saturday a CIA assessment blaming Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman for the assassination of dissent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi “very premature”.
Trump, on a trip to California, said the killing “should never have happened.” The report on Tuesday will explain who the US government believes killed Khashoggi and what the overall impact of his murder is, Trump said. It was unclear who is producing the report.
“We’ll be having a very full report over the next two days,” Trump said, acknowledging having discussed Khashoggi's murder with CIA Director Gina Haspel. Calling reports about the CIA’s conclusions “very premature,” Trump stressed that “they haven't assessed anything yet.” But at the same time, Trump refused to explicitly rejecting the idea that the Crown Prince might have been linked to the murder, saying anything was "possible".
On Friday, the Washington Post and other US media reported that the CIA had concluded with “high confidence” that Saudi king-in-waiting had ordered the murder of the journalist inside the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul on October 2.
Trump made the remarks hours after the State Department said the government was still working on determining responsibility for the death of Khashoggi, a US-based Washington Post columnist.
“Recent reports indicating that the U.S. government has made a final conclusion are inaccurate,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. “There remain numerous unanswered questions with respect to the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.”
Nauert said the State Department will continue to seek facts and work with other countries to hold those involved in the journalist’s killing accountable “while maintaining the important strategic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.”
Trump discussed the CIA assessment by phone with the agency’s director, Gina Haspel, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo while flying to California on Saturday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.
The CIA had briefed other parts of the US government, including Congress, on its assessment, sources told Reuters on Friday, a development that complicates Trump’s efforts to preserve ties with the key US ally.
A source familiar with the CIA’s assessment said it was based largely on circumstantial evidence relating to the prince’s central role in running the Saudi government.
The CIA’s finding is the most definitive US assessment to date tying Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler directly to the killing and contradicts Saudi government assertions that Prince Mohammed was not involved.
Khashoggi, a critic of the crown prince, was killed in October at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul when he went there to pick up documents he needed for his planned marriage. His body was dismembered and removed from the consulate.
As lawmakers push legislation to punish Saudi Arabia for the killing, both Republican and Democratic senators on Saturday urged Trump to be tough on the crown prince, with whom he has cultivated a deep personal relationship.
“Everything points to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, MbS, ordering @washingtonpost journalist Jamal #Khashoggi’s killing. The Trump administration should make a credible determination of responsibility before MbS executes the men who apparently carried out his orders,” tweeted Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Saturday.
However, Trump wants to preserve the Saudi regime, one of the biggest clients of US arms, despite growing opposition in Congress.
“They have been a truly spectacular ally in terms of jobs and economic development,” Trump said. “As president, I have to take a lot of things into consideration.”
