Trump vows severe punishment for Saudis over Khashoggi
News & Trends •
major u.s. defence contractors have expressed concern to the trump administration that lawmakers angered by khashoggis disappearance will block further arms deals with riyadh1 u.s. president donald trump said in a cbs interview on saturday that there would be severe punishment for saudi arabia if it turns out that missing saudi journalist jamal khashoggi was killed in the saudi consulate in istanbul1 khashoggi a prominent critic of riyadh and a u.s. resident who wrote columns for the washington post disappeared on oct. 2 after visiting the consulate1 were going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment trump said1 asked whether saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman gave an order to kill khashoggi trump said nobody knows yet but well probably be able to find out. trump added in excerpts of the 60 minutes interview that will air on sunday we would be very upset and angry if that were the case1 trump said there was much at stake with khashoggi case maybe especially so because he was a reporter1 trump said he did not want to block military sales to saudi arabia one option that has rattled u.s. defence contractors saying i dont want to hurt jobs1 but trump said he did not want to lose military sales to saudi arabia that are coveted by u.s. competitors russia and china also exporters of military equipment1 i dont want to lose an order like that he said mentioning the companies boeing lockheed and raytheon. and you know what there are other ways of punishing he said without elaborating1 turkish sources have told reuters the initial assessment of the police was that khashoggi was deliberately killed inside the consulate1 riyadh has dismissed the claims1 reported by afp1