Khashoggi, who was in a self-imposed exile in the US since 2017, vanished after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.
Fred Ryan, CEO and publisher at The Washington Post has trashed President Trump’s response to Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, calling it a betrayal of long-established American values of respect for human rights.
Ryan, in a statement, accused the US President saying “Trump is placing personal relationships and commercial interests above American interests in his desire to continue to do business as usual with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia
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The New York Times had reported that the CIA had definitively concluded that Prince Mohammed was involved in the murder of the journalist.
In his statement, released by the White House press office, Trump said that the US-Saudi relationship was more important than the possible involvement in the crime of Prince Mohammed.
He noted that Saudi King Salman and the crown prince ‘vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr Khashoggi.’
Saudis agreed to spend and invest $450 billion in the US during his ‘heavily negotiated trip’ last year will ‘create hundreds of thousands of jobs, tremendous economic development, and much additional wealth,’ Trump said.
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It would be ‘foolish,’ he added to cancel those contracts which will go then to Russia and China.
“The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region,” he said.
“I will consider whatever ideas are presented to me, but only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America,” he said.
The Washington Post CEO insisted that if there is any reason to doubt the findings of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) revealing the hands of Saudi Crown Prince behind Khashoggi’s death then President Trump should immediately make that evidence public, Washington Post reported on November 20.
“An innocent man, brutally slain, deserves better, as does the cause of truth and justice and human rights,” Ryan added.
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