Trump Says 'No Reason' For Him To Listen To 'Vicious' Tape Of Khashoggi Murder

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2018) US President Donald Trump said that he has decided not to listen to the "terrible" audio tape of murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, but has been fully briefed on its content.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in early November that the recordings of the murder of the opposition journalist have been shared with France, the United Kingdom and the United States, among others. Trump said on Sunday that he would receive a full report on the murder� of Khashoggi within the next two days, on Monday or Tuesday.

"We have the tape, I don't want to hear the tape, no reason for me to hear the tape ... Because it's a suffering tape, it's a terrible tape. I've been fully briefed on it. There's no reason for me to hear it. In fact I said to the people should I? They said, you really shouldn't, there's no reason," Trump told the Fox news broadcaster late on Sunday.

The US president went on to call the audio tape "violent, very vicious and terrible."

As for the alleged involvement of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in orchestrating the murder of the journalist, Trump said that the crown prince has assured him of having nothing to do with the killing "maybe five times at different points.

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"But he [the Saudi crown prince] did have certainly people that were reasonably close to him and close to him that were probably involved. You saw we put on very heavy sanctions, massive sanctions on a large group of people from Saudi Arabia.� But at the same time we do have an ally and I want to stick with an ally that in many ways has been very good," Trump told the broadcaster, while answering the question whether Washington believes the prince's version because they need Riyadh as a partner.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, known for his criticism of Saudi policies, went missing on October 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in the Turkish capital of Istanbul. After initially denying any knowledge of Khashoggi's whereabouts, Riyadh admitted later in October that the journalist had been killed in a fight inside the consulate.

On Thursday, the US Treasury sanctioned 17 Saudi nationals who were allegedly involved in the killing of Khashoggi, including the Saudi crown prince's former senior aide Saud Al-Qahtani and former Saudi Consul General in Istanbul Mohammed Al-Otaibi.