*WASHINGTON DC – *US President Donald Trump has accused Saudi Arabia oflying about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, his strongest comments to dateon the affair as pressure was building Sunday on the administration tostrike a tougher 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.
Saudi officials originally said Khashoggi, who entered the diplomaticmission on October 2, had left unharmed, before announcing Friday he waskilled inside the building in what they described as an altercation.
“Their stories are all over the place,” added Trump.
Saudi Arabia faced a growing chorus of incredulity Sunday, with worldpowers demanding answers. British and French officials denounced the latestSaudi explanation as insufficient. Canada’s foreign minister, ChrystiaFreeland, said the Saudi version lacked “consistency and credibility.”
Closer to home, pressure continued to grow on Trump to take a strongerstance against Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and a keyregional power.
Several senior members of Trump’s Republican Party said they believedPrince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, was linked to the killing,and one called for a “collective” Western response if a link is proved.
But Trump stopped far short of calling for the prince to be replaced,emphasizing as he has before how important the US-Saudi relationship is toWashington’s regional strategic goals.
He described the 33-year-old prince, widely known as MBS, as a “strongperson; 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 any evidence by intelligenceofficials that would make him believe MBS had any direct 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 it afterward. It could besomething in the building went badly awry. It could be that’s when he foundout about it. He could have known they were bringing him back to SaudiArabia.”
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Amid Trump’s apparent equivocations, several key Republicans demanded atougher stance.
Asked if he thought Prince Mohammed was behind the killing, a fellowRepublican, Senator Bob Corker, told CNN: “Yes, I think he did it. Let’sfinish this investigation.”
Corker, who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee, added that if theprince is implicated, “There should be a collective response.”
“I think you’re going to see the United States, United Kingdom, France,Germany working collectively with others if he did this to respond in anappropriate way.”
Perhaps the strongest words came from Lindsay Graham, a strong Trump allyin the Senate who called for Prince Mohammed to “be removed.”
“I would like to punish those involved. It’s impossible to believe thecrown prince wasn’t involved. I don’t mind military sales but I object tobusiness with the current leadership,” he said.
“This behaviour is outside the norm to the point that the people involvedneed to be removed in my view. Saudi Arabia is a country and MBS is aperson. I’m willing to separate the two,” he continued, accusing the princeof acting in a “barbaric fashion.”
Democrats have repeatedly lashed out at Trump’s response as weak andindecisive, and they said his latest reaction fell short as well.
Barring an unlikely “confession” from Prince Mohammed, DemocraticCongressman Adam Schiff said Sunday, “the president is going to accept thecrown prince’s denials like he’s accepted Putin’s denials and Kim Jong-Un’sdenials.”
“We need to do a deep-dive probe in terms of Saudi Arabia,” he said on ABC.“We have to see if financial motives are influencing the president.”
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin meanwhile said: “We ought to expel, formallyexpel, the Saudi ambassador from the United States until there’s acompletion of a third-party investigation into this kidnap, murder and Godknows what followed that occurred in Istanbul.” – APP / AFP
