\u201cRecent reports indicating that the US government has made a final conclusion are inaccurate,\u201d<\/em> State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, stopping short of explicitly rejecting reports that the CIA had implicated Mohammed bin Salman. \u201cThere remain numerous unanswered questions with respect to the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n On Friday, the Washington Post and other US media reported that the CIA had concluded with \u201chigh confidence\u201d<\/em> that MbS had ordered the murder of the journalist inside the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul on October 2.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n The Washington Post contributor was allegedly lured to the embassy in Istanbul by a false promise of a safety guarantee offered by the Saudi Ambassador to the US, Khalid bin Salman, who happens to be the Crown Prince\u2019s brother. While the agency could not conclude with certainty that the Ambassador knew that Khashoggi\u2019s life would be in jeopardy, considering multiple sources of intelligence, and the fact that bin Salman is the \u201cde facto ruler\u201d<\/em> of Saudi Arabia, the \u201caccepted position is that there is no way this happened without him being aware or involved,\u201d the Post said, quoting an anonymous source familiar with the investigation.<\/p>\n The CIA assessment, which contradicts Saudi government claims that the Crown Prince was totally unaware of the situation, seems to have caused quite a dilemma for the White House. If the allegations prove to be true, Donald Trump would have to follow through on his promise of \u201csevere punishment.\u201d<\/em> That, however, would likely mean losing a much-touted $110 billion military contract which he cemented with Saudis last year, and put in jeopardy up to $400bn-worth of contracts with Riyadh.<\/p>\n So far, Trump made it very clear that he does not wish to take any actions that would compromise his signature relationship with Saudi Arabia. On Saturday, Trump again reiterated that Riyadh remains a \u201cspectacular ally,\u201d<\/em> noting that \u201cas of this moment, we were told that [MbS] did not play a role.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n We also have a great ally in Saudi Arabia. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cThey give us a lot of jobs, they give us a lot of business, a lot of economic development,\u201d<\/em> Trump added, before boarding the plane to head to California. On his journey, he discussed the developments of the case with CIA chief Gina Haspel and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n In a somewhat symbolic gesture, on Thursday the US imposed sanctions on a group of Saudis arrested by Riyadh over their alleged role in Khashoggi\u2019s killing, many of whom would likely face the death penalty. The same day Saudi Arabia\u2019s foreign minister firmly reiterated that Mohammed bin Salman had \u201cabsolutely nothing to do\u201d<\/em> with the murder.<\/p>\n Facing international pressure amid numerous reports outlining the gruesome details of Khashoggi’s murder, the Saudi public prosecutor said that the journalist was most likely killed with lethal injection following a struggle with the \u201cnegotiation team\u201d<\/em> inside the embassy in Istanbul. His body was then dismembered and taken out of the building. Two key questions however remain unanswered \u2013 where is Khashoggi\u2019s body and who ordered the murder of the 61-year-old?<\/p>\n Until these and other numerous \u201crelevant facts\u201d<\/em> are uncovered, the US State Department stated that Washington would refrain from any actions that could undermine \u201cthe important strategic relationship\u201d<\/em><\/strong> with Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n Like this story? Share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The US government has yet to reach a \u201cfinal conclusion\u201d on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and until then won\u2019t undermine the strategic relationship with Riyadh, amid reports the CIA has pinned the blame on the Saudi Crown Prince. \u201cRecent reports indicating that the US government has made a final conclusion are inaccurate,\u201d State Department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":385493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-385492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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