Listen to this articleThe U.S President Donald Trump has joined European leaders in calling for answers after Saudi Arabia admitted dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its Istanbul consulate. Riyadh announced that the outspoken critic of the Saudi regime had died during a “fist-fight” after he entered the building on 2 October 2018. This version of events has been widely disputed and Turkish officials suspect Khashoggi was tortured and then murdered by a team of hit men before his body was cut up and disposed of. Trump initially said that he believed the Saudi account, now says he wants to get to the bottom of what took place inside the consulate. He added, “We’d like to find out where it is and what happened and I think we’re inching our way there”.
The president added he would be seeking talks with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader. Moreover, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the Saudi explanation of Khashoggi’s death as “inadequate”. Her foreign minister, Heiko Maas said that Berlin would reassess its arms sales to the kingdom while investigations into the killing were ongoing. He told public broadcaster ARD, “As long as these investigations continue, as long as we don’t know what happened there, there’s no basis for reaching positive decisions on arms exports to Saudi Arabia”. British International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, the U.S Secretary of State Steve Mnuchin, and International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde have all pulled out of the investment conference, as well as the CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, The New York Times and the Financial Times, among others.
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