Trump Rules Out Halting Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia Over Journalist Vanishing

US President Donald Trump said Saturday there were other "tough" ways of responding to the vanishing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate than ending weapons sales to the Saudi Arabia.

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2018) US President Donald Trump said Saturday there were other "tough" ways of responding to the vanishing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate than ending weapons sales to the Saudi Arabia.

"In terms of an order of $110 billion... all they gonna do is give it to other countries and I think that would be very foolish for our country," he said.

The US president warned earlier the United States would take action against Saudi Arabia if it were proven that the journalist had been murdered inside the Istanbul consulate.

But speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he had worked very hard to get the $110 billion order for US weapons from the Saudis.

"I worked very hard to get the order for the military - $110 billion - I believe it's the largest order ever made... But if they don't buy it from us they are going to buy it from Russia, China," he said.

"I actually think we will be punishing ourselves if we did that. There are other things we can do that are very powerful," he told reporters.

Trump argued no one knew what had happened to Khashoggi, a known critic of the Saudi monarchy, and the US was looking into this very seriously. He said he had invited the journalist's Turkish fiancee to Washington after she wrote a letter to his administration.