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Saudi Arabia has promised a "full" investigation into the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said Sunday the US Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, at the end of an interview with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Bahrain.
"We discussed it (…) with the need for transparency, a thorough investigation.A full agreement from FM Jubeir, no reservations," Mattis told the press after the talks, during which he had warned the Saudi kingdom that the murder was attributed to Saudi Arabia. the authorities risked destabilizing the region.
"No reservations at all." He (Jubeir) said that we needed to know what had happened and that it was very collaborative, agreeing, "said the Pentagon chief at a journalist during a flight Manama-Prague where he will celebrate the centenary of Czechoslovakia.
The Saudi journalist Khashoggi, 59, who had criticized the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had been living in voluntary exile in the United States since 2017.
He was murdered after going to the Istanbul consulate on October 2 in his country to obtain documents in order to marry his Turkish bride. According to horrendous reports, the Washington Post columnist was killed and dismembered by a team sent from Saudi Arabia to silence him.
After weeks of denials, Riyadh attempted to draw a line of demarcation in the face of the crisis with an investigation.
Prince Mohammed, heir to the throne of the oil nation, has publicly denounced the killing as "disgusting", while the Saudi prosecutor acknowledged for the first time this week that, according to evidence of a Turkish investigation, the murder had been "premeditated".
But Riyadh on Saturday rejected Ankara's appeals for the extradition of 18 Saudis arrested for killing Khashoggi, while Washington warned that the crisis could destabilize the Middle East.
Addressing a forum in Manama on Saturday, Mattis warned that "the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in a diplomatic establishment must concern us all greatly."
"Failure by a country to respect international standards and the rule of law undermines regional stability at a time when it is indispensable," he said.
The murder, which tarnished the image of Crown Prince Mohammed, sparked a wave of international criticism and affected Washington's relations with the kingdom.
The United States relies heavily on Saudi Arabia to counter the influence of Iran in the region and to defend the security of Israel.
Mattis did not have a formal bilateral meeting with Jubeir on the sidelines of the Manama forum, where he met with several Arab and European leaders.
The two men spoke at a dinner gathering all ministers.
US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on the sidelines of a regional defense forum in Manama
