Mohammadi News Agency News – Features – Photo
MNA International Desk: US President Donald Trump said he does not want to listen to an audio recording of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi despite facing mounting pressure to punish Saudi Arabia for the killing.
Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, and Turkey has given the US government a recording of the murder, but Trump said he would not listen to it “because it’s a suffering tape, it’s a terrible tape.”
“I don’t want to hear the tape, no reason for me to hear the tape,” Trump said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.”
“I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it … It was very violent, very vicious and terrible.”
Trump also said he wants to maintain a close alliance with Saudi Arabia despite Khashoggi’s death and questioned the alleged role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is known as MbS and is the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
The interview was taped on Friday, hours before government sources said the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had briefed the Trump administration on the murder and its belief that MbS ordered it, reported news agency.
