President Donald Trump has dismissed a United Nations request for
the FBI to investigate the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal
Khashoggi.
The investigation, he said, would jeopardise American weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.
A report on
Khashoggi’s assassination published last week by the UN special
rapporteur on extrajudicial killings said the US should open an FBI
inquiry and “pursue criminal prosecutions within the United States, as
appropriate”.
But Trump brushed the proposal aside in an interview broadcast by NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
Asked if he would allow the FBI to investigate, Trump said: “I think it’s been heavily investigated.”
Asked who had investigated, the president replied: “By everybody. I mean … I’ve seen so many different reports.”
Khashoggi, 59, was a US resident who wrote for the Washington Post.
He was killed and
dismembered after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in last
October, seeking paperwork he needed in order to marry.
The UN report
contains disturbing details of conversations between unidentified Saudis
before and after Khashoggi’s arrival, based on transcripts provided by
Turkish authorities.
Khashoggi is
referred to as a “sacrificial animal”. One Saudi official is quoted as
asking whether it would “be possible to put the trunk in a bag”.
Another replies:
“No. Too heavy. It is not a problem. The body is heavy. First time I cut
on the ground. If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will
be finished. We will wrap each of them.”
Transcripts of
conversations after Khashoggi’s arrival at the consulate include the
journalist saying: “There is a towel here. Are you going to give me
drugs?”
The reply: “We will anaesthetise you.”
The UN special
rapporteur blamed the Saudi government for the murder and said there was
credible evidence that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other
senior officials were responsible.
Trump told NBC the
murder “really didn’t come up” in a call this week with the prince, a
key ally of the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner,
who among other responsibilities is charged with implementing a plan
for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Trump also
suggested Saudi Arabia was no worse than other states in the Middle
East, which he called a “vicious, hostile place”, adding: “Look at Iran,
look at other countries, I won’t mention names.”
The president then
cited a drastically overinflated figure for Saudi spending on US weapons
that fact-checkers have previously noted does not match the official
record.
“I only say they spend $400bn to $450bn over a period of time, all money, all jobs, buying equipment,” Trump said.
In fact Saudi Arabia last year signed “letters of offer and acceptance” for $14.5bn in military purchases from the US.
The Senate last
week voted to block the Trump administration selling arms to Saudi
Arabia, seven Republicans joining Democrats to pass the measure.
Trump has pledged to use his presidential veto and push on with the sales.
While denying he
was saying such purchases were “the price” for Khashoggi’s murder, Trump
on Sunday defended his consideration of arms sales in responding to the
assassination.
“I’m not like a fool that says, ‘We don’t want to do business with them,’” Trump said.
“And by the way, if
they don’t do business with us, you know what they do? They’ll do
business with the Russians or with the Chinese …”
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