20/10/2018 Donald Trump implies Jamal Khashoggi is dead but says he will not cut arms sales to Saudi

but says he will not cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia

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Donald Trump implies Jamal Khashoggi is dead but says he will not cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Mr Trump said it “certainly doesn’t look like [Jamal Khashoggi] is around”. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/HASAN JAMALI, FILE

By Raf Sanchez, ISTANBUL and Ben Riley-Smith, US EDITOR

Follow
12 OCTOBER 2018 • 5:31AM

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/12/donald-trump-implies-jamal-khashoggi-dead-says-will-not-cut/ 1/4
20/10/2018 Donald Trump implies Jamal Khashoggi is dead but says he will not cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia

D onald Trump implied on Thursday that the missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi had been murdered, saying it “certainly doesn’t
look like he’s around”, but said he would not cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia even if the kingdom was responsible for his death. 

Mr Trump suggested he did not believe Saudi Arabia’s claim that Mr Khashoggi had safely left the consulate
(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/10/turkish-newspaper-names-15-saudis-claims-involved-khashoggi/)before he disappeared more than a week
ago. “He went in, and it doesn’t look like he came out. It certainly doesn’t look like he’s around,” Mr Trump told Fox News.

Turkey has told US officials it has audio and video recordings that prove Mr Khashoggi was tortured and killed inside the
consulate, The Washington Post reported, citing unidentified US and Turkish officials.

It was not clear that US officials had seen the footage or heard the audio, the newspaper reported, but Turkish officials have described
the recordings to them. 

Turkey meanwhile said it had accepted Saudi proposals to set up "a joint working group" to investigate the case. It was not clear how
such a group would function, given that Turkish officials have accused Saudi Arabia of murdering and dismembering Mr Khashoggi. 

Saudi Arabia's consul's residence, in Istanbul CREDIT: AP

The president’s comments came amid growing anger in Congress towards Saudi Arabia over allegations that a 15-man Saudi “hit
squad” killed the journalist and may have filmed his death. 

Democrat and Republican senators banded together to trigger an investigation and said the US government must examine whether
the “highest ranking officials in the government of Saudi Arabia” were involved. 

Under US law, a bipartisan group of senators can force the White House to carry out an investigation and to consider whether to bring
sanctions against foreign government officials suspected of murder or kidnapping. 

"There will be a bipartisan tsunami against Saudi Arabia here if they did in fact do this,” said Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator
close to the White House. "This is a defining moment for us. Behaviour like this is unacceptable.”

But Mr Trump said he would not scale back $110 billion (£83 billion) in US arms sales to Saudi Arabia even if it was proven that the
kingdom had murdered Mr Khashoggi, who regularly wrote columns criticising the Saudi government. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/12/donald-trump-implies-jamal-khashoggi-dead-says-will-not-cut/ 2/4
20/10/2018 Donald Trump implies Jamal Khashoggi is dead but says he will not cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Josh Marshall
@joshtpm

Trump: This thing happened in Turkey and Khashoggi isn't even

a US citizen.
5:16 PM - Oct 11, 2018
3,360 4,803 people are talking about this

“I would not be in favour of stopping a country from spending $110bn, which is an all-time record, and letting Russia have that money
and letting China have that money,” Mr Trump said. “What good does that do us? There are other things we could do.”

The president said “there will be something that has to take place” but did not give specifics. 

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, warned of “serious consequences” if it turns out Saudi Arabia was responsible for the journalist’s
disappearance. 

"People who have long thought of themselves as Saudi's friends are saying this is a very, very serious matter," Mr Hunt said. "If these
allegations are true, there will be serious consequences because our friendships and our partnerships are based on shared values.

Both the UK and US sell large quantities of weapons to Saudi Arabia and provide logistical support for its much-criticised bombing
campaign in Yemen. 

A demonstrator dressed as Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) with blood on his hands protests with others outside the Saudi Embassy in Washington CREDIT: JIM
WATSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Saudi Arabia has vehemently denied any responsibility for the disappearance. A Turkish government spokesman said Thursday that
the two sides had agreed to set up a joint investigation, a sign of a potential thaw in the tense standoff. 

Saudi officials earlier reportedly reneged on a deal to allow to let Turkish police search the Istanbul consulate after learning
investigators planned to use a chemical which exposes bloodstains.

Hurriyet and Aksam, two pro-government Turkish newspapers, said talks over searching the consulate broke down after Turkish
police said they planned to use Luminol, a forensic chemical which lights up vividly on contact with blood, even if the blood has
already been swept clean. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/10/12/donald-trump-implies-jamal-khashoggi-dead-says-will-not-cut/ 3/4
20/10/2018 Donald Trump implies Jamal Khashoggi is dead but says he will not cut arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Raf Sanchez
@rafsanchez

Saudis are stalling on letting Turks search the consulate,

according to Hurriyet. After initially agreeing, they reportedly
balked when told Turks wanted to use the chemical Luminol to
look for blood traces inside consulate. (Luminol illustration
below)
8:12 AM - Oct 11, 2018
114 117 people are talking about this

A Turkish source told The Telegraph that the Saudis were also resisting a search of the Saudi consul-general’s official residence, which
is near the consulate. 

Video footage from the day of Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance show that black vans drove from the consulate to the residence, raising
suspicions that the journalist’s body might have been transported there.  

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, expressed disbelief that Saudi Arabia could not produce footage to support its case that
Mr Khashoggi left the consulate. "If a bird flew, if a mosquito appeared, these systems would catch them,” he said. 

Mr Trump said investigators were “probably getting closer than you might think” to learning the truth and said a US team was
involved in the search. A Turkish official quickly denied that, saying no Americans were involved. 

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