Trump, breaking with US intelligence, appears to accept Saudi explanation of journalist’s death

President Donald Trump broke with his own intelligence agencies Friday, appearing to accept Saudi Arabia’s explanation that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by accident during a fistfight, while the United States’ spy agencies are increasingly convinced he was assassinated on high-level orders from the Saudi royal court.

>>Mark Landler and Eric SchmittThe New York Times
Published : 20 Oct 2018, 07:09 AM
Updated : 20 Oct 2018, 07:09 AM

Trump, who has cultivated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and made Saudi Arabia the linchpin of his Middle East strategy, has been deeply reluctant to point a finger at the prince, despite evidence linking him to Saudi operatives who entered the country’s consulate in Istanbul the same day that Khashoggi disappeared there.

Asked during a visit to an Air Force base in Arizona whether he viewed the Saudi explanation as credible, Trump said, “I do.”

The president said he still had questions for Prince Mohammed, and he called the killing of Khashoggi “unacceptable.” Trump also raised the possibility of sanctions against Saudi Arabia, but said he hoped Congress would not try to block billions of dollars in weapons sales to the kingdom, which he has held up as proof of the fruits of the alliance.

Trump’s response sets up a clash with Congress, where Republicans and Democrats both tarred the Saudi explanation as lacking credibility. A senior lawmaker briefed on US intelligence assessments of the circumstances surrounding Khashoggi’s death, and the likely culprits, said it was not consistent with the Saudi account.

The lawmaker, Rep Adam B Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said, “The kingdom and all involved in this brutal murder must be held accountable, and if the Trump administration will not take the lead, Congress must.”

Sen Lindsey Graham, R-SC, a close ally of Trump’s, declared in a Twitter post, “To say that I am sceptical of the new Saudi narrative about  Khashoggi is an understatement.” He added, “It’s hard to find this latest ‘explanation’ as credible.”

Representative Adam B Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in May on Capitol Hill. He was among the lawmakers who tarred the explanation by Saudi Arabia as lacking credibility. The New York Times

The growing evidence that Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed on orders from the Saudi royal family has put Trump in an increasingly untenable position.

On Friday evening, the president praised the statement issued by the Saudi government, which confirmed Khashoggi’s death, as a “good first step” and a “big step.” Earlier, the prince and other senior Saudi officials had denied any role in Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with Prince Mohammed by phone Friday evening and then briefed Trump and his national security adviser, John R Bolton, according to a White House spokesman.

“I think we’re getting close to solving a big problem,” Trump told reporters at the Luke Air Force Base, where he was shown an Apache helicopter, an F-35 fighter jet and an array of bombs.

For the president, Saudi Arabia has become a key ally but also a troublesome partner. Saudi support is critical to his efforts to isolate Iran. But he has watched as Prince Mohammed pursued a deadly war in Yemen, carried on a feud with his neighbour Qatar, jailed female dissidents and detained hundreds of wealthy Saudis.

Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, cultivated a relationship with the prince, who is close to him in age and who Kushner hoped would be an advocate for his peace proposal between Israel and the Palestinians.

In internal discussions, Kushner has urged the president and his aides not to abandon Prince Mohammed. But as Turkish officials leaked details of the grisly killing of Khashoggi and of the dismemberment of his body, the White House has become increasingly isolated in its defence of Saudi Arabia.

A stream of prominent Wall Street and tech executives cancelled plans to attend an investor conference convened by the prince next week in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. On Thursday, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, pulled out of the conference, as well, though he will attend a separate meeting on counterterrorism strategy.

In an interview on Thursday with The New York Times, Trump acknowledged that the furore over Khashoggi’s death had mushroomed into one of the biggest foreign policy crises of his presidency.

“This one has caught the imagination of the world, unfortunately,” Trump said. “It’s not a positive. Not a positive.”

The president also said Thursday that it was still “a little bit early” in the process to draw definitive conclusions about who ordered the killing. But he expressed no doubt that the truth would come out soon.

“We’re working with the intelligence from numerous countries,” he said, adding, “This is the best intelligence we could have.”

On Wednesday, The Times reported that US intelligence officials were increasingly convinced that Prince Mohammed is culpable in Khashoggi’s death, and that they were preparing an appraisal for the White House.

Saudi Arabia tried to project the idea of a housecleaning, announcing that Saud al-Qahtani, a close aide to the crown prince; Maj Gen Ahmed al-Assiri, the deputy director of Saudi intelligence; and other high-ranking intelligence officials had been dismissed.

For Trump, who is on a three-day swing in the West before the midterm elections, the Khashoggi affair has become a distraction during a period in which he had hoped to campaign for Republican congressional candidates on a message of economic growth and the recent confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Just after answering questions about the Saudi announcement, Trump flew to a Make America Great Again rally in Mesa, Arizona.

© 2018 New York Times News Service