BFF-39 US investigators working with Saudis, Turkey on missing journalist: Trump

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US investigators working with Saudis, Turkey on missing journalist: Trump

WASHINGTON, Oct 11, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – President Donald Trump said Thursday
that US investigators were working with both Ankara and Riyadh to probe the
suspicious disappearance in Turkey of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“We can’t let it happen. And we’re being very tough and we have
investigators over there and we’re working with Turkey and frankly we’re
working with Saudi Arabia,” Trump said in an interview with “Fox and
Friends.”

“I have to find out what happened,” Trump said, when asked if US-Saudi
relations would be jeopardized by the disappearance of Khashoggi, a US
resident who Turkish officials suspect was murdered after entering the Saudi
consulate in Istanbul.

“We’re probably getting closer than you might think,” he added.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor who lived in the United States,
vanished October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain a
document needed to marry his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who waited for
him outside.

Turkish police say he was murdered inside the consulate by a 15-member
Saudi team that flew into the country just ahead of Khashoggi’s scheduled
appointment, and left the same day, according to Turkish government sources.
Saudi Arabia insists Khashoggi exited the consulate after a brief visit.

“He went in and doesn’t look like he came out. Certainly doesn’t look like
he is around,” Trump told “Fox and Friends.”

The Washington Post, citing US intelligence intercepts, reported that Saudi
Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered an operation to trap
Khashoggi.

The United States has called for a transparent investigation, amid warnings
by US lawmakers of serious repercussions if suspicions of a murder were borne
out.

“That would be a very sad thing and we’ll probably know in the very short
future,” Trump said. “We have incredible people and incredible talent working
on it. We don’t like it. I don’t like it. No good.”

Khashoggi has been a critic of Saudi policy, especially its intervention in
Yemen’s brutal civil war, under the crown prince.

Trump, and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have been personally close to Mohammed
bin Salman, since turning to Saudi Arabia as a pivotal ally in the Middle
East against Iran.

BSS/AFP/ARS/2017 hrs