US President Donald Trump promises a “severe punishment” if it turns out Saudi Arabia is behind the missing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“Currently they deny, and they deny vigorously” that they are involved, according to Trump in an interview with the American channel CBS. “Could they be it? Yes,” he added.
But punishing by blowing a $ 110 billion arms deal is something Trump will not do. “They ordered military equipment; everyone wanted that contract: Russia, China … and we won it,” the president said. “I do not want to lose such a contract.” He added that there are other ways to punish a country.
The French president Emmanuel Macron, for his part, said that France wants to know “the full truth”.
Khashoggi disappeared on October 2, after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, to collect documents for his marriage.