Remarks follow briefing and end administration’s refusal to discuss Saudi journalist
Donald Trump has said he presumes Jamal Khashoggi is dead and that the consequences for Saudi Arabia could be “very severe” if its leaders are found to have ordered the dissident journalist’s killing.
Everybody knows that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal killing and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (everybody, that is, exceptthe Trumps, who coincidentally do a lot of business with the House of Saud) and the lurid brutality of that murder has prompted calls for western businesses to reconsider their increasingly cozy relationship with Mohammed bin Salman.
But the president stopped short of saying the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s death.
Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and journalist, was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Since then, Saudi Arabia’s messaging has shifted. Here’s how.
Saudi rulers are considering blaming Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a deputy intelligence director who is close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
A Turkish newspaper reported Oct. 18 that Turkish police will extend the search for missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi to a forest in Istanbul and a farm house in the neighboring province of Yalova.
A Turkish newspaper reported on Oct. 18 that one of the suspects involved in the disappearance of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi died in a “suspicious car accident” in Riyadh.
The ghastly saga has strained relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and put the United States at the center of a dispute with a key Arab ally.
The calculated media strategy has proved remarkably effective for President Erdogan, ensuring that the case remains front page news around the world.
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