Middle East

Saudis “don’t know how Khashoggi” was killed, incident was “aberration, mistake”

22/10/2018

By Jon Swaine
21 Oct, 2018

A senior Republican senator on Sunday said he believed the Saudi crown prince was responsible for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi and that the US had intelligence suggesting “very high-level” involvement.

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said Mohammed bin Salman had “crossed a line” by apparently overseeing the death of Khashoggi, a dissident journalist, and that “there has to be a punishment and a price to pay” for doing so.

The Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, put it differently, saying the Washington Post columnist was murdered in a “rogue operation”. Al-Jubeir told Fox News: “The individuals did this out of the scope of their authority.” He claimed Bin Salman had no involvement and that the killers were not closely tied to the prince, despite convincing reports to the contrary. “If he did it then I think there should be a collective response,” Corker said on CNN’s State of the Union, suggesting that the US, UK and other leading powers would target Bin Salman personally with economic sanctions.