US President Donald Trump on Thursday, refuted the CIA’s assessment that Saudi Arabia crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Defending his continuing support to MbS, Trump said, “They have felt certain ways. I have the report, they have not concluded, I don’t know if anyone’s going to be able to conclude the crown prince did it.”
Earlier this week, Trump has released a statement, where he wrote: “(It) could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”
“I hate the crime, I hate the cover-up. I will tell you this: The crown prince hates it more than I do, and they have vehemently denied it,” Trump said.
According to news report, when asked about who should be held accountable for Khashoggi’s murder, Trump again refused to blame MbS and said, “Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a very, very vicious place.”
Trump was seen as stressing upon the importance of allies between US and Saudi Arabia and said if the same critics has been imposed on others like Saudi Arabia, “we wouldn’t be able to have anyone for an ally”.
According to news reports, Trump sought the discussion and closed the matter on Tuesday, where he questioned CIA and praised Saudi Arabia. Trump reiterated his claim against the Saudi officials on the event of leading to a murder.
Trump continued his partial statement against the CIA and said “at the top level they say they did not commit this atrocity”, behalf of Saudi Arabia.
Referring to the past support to crown prince and about present scenario, Trump said, “Till this happened, there were a lot of people saying a lot of good things about the crown prince.”