Jim Mattis presses Saudi leader for full probe on Jamal Khashoggi’s death

Saudi had initially said it knew nothing about what happened to Khashoggi, but on Thursday said evidence shows the killing was premeditated.

By: AP

Prague | October 28, 2018 06:25 PM IST

2 min read

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US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis at Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin/File)

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday he met with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister during an international conference and urged a full and complete investigation into the killing of writer Jamal Khashoggi.

Mattis told reporters traveling with him that Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir “had no reservations at all” about the need for the kingdom to be transparent about the death of the Washington Post columnist at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

The two spoke privately at a dinner Saturday during the Manama Dialogue international security conference in Bahrain. Mattis did not detail the conversation they had but said he told Jubeir that “we need to know what happened.”

Turkish officials have said that a Saudi team of 15 men tortured, killed and dismembered the writer in a premeditated act. The kingdom initially said it knew nothing about what happened to Khashoggi, but on Thursday said evidence shows the killing was premeditated.

When asked about the killing during a panel discussion at the conference, Jubeir complained about the media “hysteria” and the rush to pin blame on the Saudi royal family before the investigation is complete.

Jamal Khashoggi was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Khashoggi lived in self-imposed exile in the U.S. for the past year and wrote editorial columns for The Washington Post that were critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s heir apparent.

Mattis, in his speech at the conference, said Khashoggi’s killing undermines stability in the region, and warned that the U.S. may take additional actions in response to the killing. He did not say what those steps would be.

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