Jamal Khashoggi: Audio and video recordings prove that a Saudi journalist was killed at the consulate, according to the Post

Saudi Arabia firmly denies any involvement in the disappearance of Khashoggi and claims to have left the consulate this afternoon. His fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who was waiting outside said that she did not see it reappear. Turkey called on the Saudi authorities to provide evidence that he had actually left the consulate.

Focus on 15 men

On Thursday, a US intelligence official told CNN that the United States had intercepted Saudi officials to discuss a plan to lure Khashoggi into Saudi Arabia and keep him in detention.

Washington's "working hypothesis" is that Khashoggi was murdered inside the Istanbul consulate, according to an American official familiar with the latest information. "We are quite lucid, this is likely to happen and it has not finished well," said the manager. The source warned that it was the last assessment and that no conclusion had been drawn.

International pressure has increased on Saudi Arabia to explain what happened to Khashoggi, a former Saudi royal insider who became critical of the regime and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as the MBS. .

A source familiar with Khashoggi told CNN that the Saudi authorities had repeatedly tried to make contact with Khashoggi in 2017, including proposing to lead the state-funded think tank. According to the source, Khashoggi rejected these ideas, and over the next few months, his much more vocal criticism of the government's domestic policies and the crisis with Qatar put an end to any dialogue.

The source, which maintains high-level contacts inside the kingdom, said that the personalities of the Royal Court of Riyadh were particularly exasperated by Khashoggi's criticism of the Saudi authorities' decision to file in September 2017 Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic scholar Yusuf al. -Qaradawi as terrorists. At the same time, Khashoggi feared to return to the kingdom, the source added.

Trump rules out immediate action on arms sales

President Donald Trump said his administration was "very tough" with Saudi Arabia in his investigation of the Khashoggi case.

"We are very tough and we have investigators there and we are working with Turkey and, frankly, we are working with Saudi Arabia, we want to know what happened," Trump said. of a phone interview with Fox and Friends on Thursday. .

"We're probably getting closer to what you think" to find out what happened, Trump said.

To the question of whether the United States has field investigators in Turkey, the FBI did not want to confirm or comment. A Turkish diplomatic official denied that the United States sent investigators to Turkey to investigate the Khashoggi case, saying the information was "not true".

However, Trump said Thursday that he was reluctant to take action, especially with regard to the sale of weapons. "There are other things we can do," he told reporters at the White House.

"I do not like the idea of ​​stopping a $ 110 billion investment in the United States because you know what they're going to do, they'll take that money and spend it in Russia or China, "said Trump. referring to an American armament agreement with Saudi Arabia. "If this turns out to be as serious as possible, there are certainly other ways to handle the situation."

"Let's find out what's the problem first," Trump said.

The United States signed a defense deal of nearly $ 110 billion with Saudi Arabia in May 2017, when Trump made Saudi Arabia a stop on his first trip to the United States. foreign as president. The shutdown was perceived, in part, as a recognition of the strong relationship between Trump, Jared Kushner – his son-in-law and senior advisor – and MBS.

The prince contacted the White House and more particularly Kushner earlier this week to deny the charges, after it became clear that he and the royal court were suspected of the possible killing of Khashoggi, according to a person close to him. # 39; call.

But National Security Advisor, John Bolton, also joined the call and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had his own conversation, stating that the Prince could not get around them .

An administration official told CNN that Pompeo and the State Department are taking a leading role in liaising with the Saudi government in this case.

Turkish inquiry

Saudi officials have agreed to allow Ankara to inspect the consulate as part of Turkey's investigation into the missing journalist.

A senior Turkish official who spoke on condition of anonymity had previously told CNN that "the Saudis are not cooperating fully in the investigation and they are unwilling to cooperate."

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that Turkey "can not remain silent" on the disappearance of Khashoggi.

One of the Saudi men has been identified by Salah Muhammed al-Tubaiqi, Anadolu agency of Turkey, and Sabah. He is listed on an official Saudi health website as head of the forensic department of the Ministry of the Interior.

Another member of the group identified by the Turkish official media, Muhammad Saad al-Zahrani, appeared on Saudi public television alongside MBS.

All 15 arrived and left Turkey on October 2, the day Khashoggi disappeared, according to Turkish officials. Zahrani and Tubaiqi left Istanbul 45 minutes away, according to Anadolu.

An official quoted by the New York Times described the operation as alleged "swift and complex" killing and said that Khashoggi was killed within two hours of his arrival at the consulate. The agents "dismembered his body with a saw provided for this purpose," the editor told the newspaper, adding that "it's like" Pulp Fiction "".

Turkish officials are investigating whether Khashoggi's Apple watch reveals clues of what happened to him at the Saudi Arabian consulate, to determine whether the smartwatch's data could have been transmitted to a cloud or his personal phone, who was with Cengiz on the outside, reported Reuters two top Turkish officials.