*WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has accused Saudi Arabia of lyingabout the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, his strongest comments to date on theaffair as pressure was building Sunday on the administration to strike atougher line.*
In an interview with the Washington Post published late Saturday, Trumpstepped back from his stance that Saudi Arabia’s latest explanation for thedeath of the journalist inside their Istanbul consulate was credible, butsaid he remained confident in the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed binSalman.
“Obviously there’s been deception and there’s been lies,” he said of theshifting accounts offered by Riyadh. “Their stories are all over theplace,” added Trump.
Saudi Arabia faced a growing chorus of incredulity on Sunday, with worldpowers demanding answers. Closer to home, pressure continued to grow onTrump to take a stronger stance against Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggestoil exporter and a key regional power. Trump emphasised as he has beforehow important the US-Saudi relationship is to Washington’s regionalstrategic goals. He described the 33-year-old prince, widely known as MBS,as a “strong person; he has very good control.”
“He’s seen as a person who can keep things under check,” added Trump. “Imean that in a positive way.” Trump added that he has yet to be shown anyevidence by intelligence officials that would make him believe MBS had anydirect role.
“Nobody has told me he’s responsible. Nobody has told me he’s notresponsible. We haven’t reached that point. I haven’t heard either way,”the president said. “There is a possibility he found out about itafterward. It could be something in the building went badly awry. It couldbe that´s when he found out about it. He could have known they werebringing him back to Saudi Arabia.”
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Amid Trump´s apparent equivocations, several key Republicans demanded atougher stance. Meanwhile in Istanbul, Turkish President Recep TayyipErdogan vowed to reveal within days the “naked truth” over the death ofjournalist Jamal Khashoggi as Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir,insisted on Sunday that crown prince was “not aware” of the killing andthat the kingdom does not know where the body is.
Britain, France and Germany on Sunday said Saudi Arabia must clarify howdissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi died inside its Istanbul consulate,and its account must “be backed by facts to be considered credible”.
“There remains an urgent need for clarification of exactly what happened onOctober 2nd — beyond the hypotheses that have been raised so far in theSaudi investigation, which need to be backed by facts to be consideredcredible,” the three countries said in a joint statement.
“We thus stress that more efforts are needed and expected towardsestablishing the truth in a comprehensive, transparent and crediblemanner,” they added. “We will ultimately make our judgement based on thecredibility of the further explanation we receive about what happened andour confidence that such a shameful event cannot and will not ever berepeated.” – APP/AFP
