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Time in Yerevan: 11:07,   29 March 2024

Trump says breaking with Saudi Arabia would send oil prices 'through the roof'

Trump says breaking with Saudi Arabia would send oil prices 'through the roof'

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday linked his decision to continue backing Saudi Arabia — despite the murder of a U.S. resident by Saudi agents — to his desire to keep oil prices low.

"Saudi Arabia, if we broke with them, I think your oil prices would go through the roof," Trump told reporters on Tuesday. "I've kept them down. They've helped me keep them down,” CNBC quoted Trump as saying.

The CIA has reportedly concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an ally to the Trump administration, ordered Khashoggi's death.

On Tuesday, Trump cast doubt on that assessment, saying in his statement "maybe he did and maybe he didn't!"

The United States has sanctioned 17 individuals connected to the killing. 

On Monday, Germany issued entry bans for 18 Saudi citizens suspected of involvement in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Riyadh’s Istanbul consulate, effectively banning them from entering the European Union’s passport-free Schengen zone.

Earlier last week prosecutors in Saudi Arabia have said that they would seek the death penalty for five people allegedly involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A total of 11 people were charged, the Saudi Public Prosecutor's office said, adding that the five people facing capital punishment were directly involved in "ordering and executing the crime."

Saudi Arabia claims that neither the Crown Prince nor his father, King Salman, knew of the operation.

Turkey has claimed for weeks to have audio evidence that exposes how the Saudi journalist was killed on October 2 while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain papers for his upcoming marriage.

The Turkish chief prosecutor has previously said that Khashoggi was strangled as soon as he entered the consulate as part of a premeditated plan, and his body dismembered.

US President Donald Trump said November 18 he doesn't want to listen to an audio recording that purportedly depicts the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi because it's "a suffering tape."

"We have the tape. I don’t want to hear the tape. No reason for me to hear the tape," Trump said in an interview with "Fox News Sunday."

Asked why, Trump said "because it’s a suffering tape."

"It’s a terrible tape," he added. "I’ve been fully briefed on it. There’s no reason for me to hear it."

Trump said he knows everything about the tape because of briefings, and described it as "very violent, very vicious and terrible."

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan








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