US President Donald Trump rallies with supporters at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Lebanon, Ohio, U.S., October 12, 2018. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
President Donald Trump vowed "severe punishment” should Saudi Arabia be linked to the disappearance of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi as he turned up the pressure on the kingdom in an interview to be broadcast Sunday night.
"Nobody knows” whether Saudi officials are involved although they "deny it vehemently,” Trump said in an excerpt of a CBS News "60 Minutes” interview. "It’s being looked at very, very strongly. We would be very upset and angry if that was the case.”
"We’re going to get to the bottom of it, and there will be severe punishment,” the president said. "Could it be them? Yes.”
Khashoggi, a Saudi critic of the regime who wrote for the Washington Post, hasn’t been seen since he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to pick up a document for his upcoming wedding. Turkish officials have said they believe he was killed and dismembered there.
In the interview, Trump said new actions should not jeopardize the Saudi military equipment contracts held by companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, which he said would put jobs at risk.
‘Harsh Word’
"I don’t want to hurt jobs. I don’t want to lose an order like that,” he said. "There are other ways of punishing, to use a word that’s a pretty harsh word, but it’s true.”
Trump’s hesitation to strike back at the kingdom reflects close ties the White House has nurtured with the nation’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his administration’s acquiescence to other Saudi actions that have drawn international condemnation.
Under Trump, the US has continued to back a Saudi bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen that’s killed thousands of civilians, providing American logistical support and weapons.
Even as senators pushed for sanctions against the Saudis if the murder allegations prove true, Trump has said only that he’d take unspecified action. "He went in and it doesn’t look like he came out,” the president observed in a Fox News interview.
Saudi Arabia insists Khashoggi left its consulate alive shortly after he entered. But the Washington Post reported that the Turkish government has told US officials it has audio and video recordings proving he was tortured and killed inside the consulate.
