Donald Trump reckoning on Khashoggi murder emphasizes US-Saudi ties

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will stand by the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, setting aside the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi while touting the importance of relations with the kingdom amid turmoil in the Middle East.

Trump said the crime against Khashoggi "was a terrible one, and one that our country does not condone," but laid out no actions beyond sanctions already announced against 17 Saudis known to have participated in the killing.

"The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region," he said in a statement.

Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, was killed on October 2 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Trump justified his decision based on long-standing ties between the US and Saudi Arabia, including business deals between the two countries and kingdom's participation in the fight against terrorism.

He cited 450 billion dollars worth of business negotiated last year, saying this would create hundreds of thousands of US jobs. He also said that the kingdom had spent billions of dollars to fight terrorism and had "been very responsive" to his requests to keep oil prices low.

Speaking to reporters before leaving the White House for Florida, where he will spend the Thanksgiving holiday, Trump said he refused to cancel the business deals. If he did, he predicted oil prices "would go through the roof" and China and Russia would swoop in to grab up the business.

"They wanted those contracts. That would be a big fat beautiful gift to Russia and China," he said. "They are not going to get that gift."

In his statement, Trump noted that King Salman and the crown prince "vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr Khashoggi," who was a Washington Post contributing columnist.

But Trump simultaneously cast some doubt on what the crown prince has said.

"It could very well be" that he had knowledge of the killing. "Maybe he did and maybe he didn't," Trump said. "That being said, we may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr Jamal Khashoggi."

The statement came ahead of the release of a CIA report that US media have said concludes that the crown prince ordered the assassination. Trump didn't mention the report, but said US intelligence agencies were continuing to assess all information about the case.

In response to Trump's statement, two high-ranking US senators demanded that the president address whether the crown prince is responsible for Khashoggi's death.

Republican Senator Bob Corker and Democrat Bob Menendez, the two top ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the White House to reach a "determination" as to "whether Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman is responsible for Mr Khashoggi’s murder." 

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act requires the president to determine whether a foreign person is responsible for an extrajudicial killing against an individual exercising freedom of expression if the two ranking senators on the Foreign Relations Committee issue a request.

The senators said they expect a response within 120 days.

Trump used his statement to point the finger at Iran as the country at the core of numerous conflicts in the Middle East, including the war in Yemen and Iran's alleged support for the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

Saudi Arabia on the other hand is "a great ally in our very important fight against Iran," Trump said.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo backed up Trump's arguments.

"It's a mean, nasty world out there," Pompeo said, speaking at the State Department.

Stressing the importance of the bond, Pompeo said Washington would continue to have relations with the kingdom.

"That is the commitment that the president made today," Pompeo said. "It's that straightforward. This is a long and historic commitment and one that is absolutely vital to America's security."

Pompeo met earlier with Turkey's foreign minister, who said there were too many unanswered questions in the Khashoggi case, including who ordered the murder.

Turkey is insisting on clarification and has conveyed this to the US, Mevlut Cavusoglu said, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu. Cavusoglu also said Ankara does not view Khashoggi's death as political, but as a murder that needs to be uncovered.

Trump also said he was aware that members of Congress "would like to go in a different direction" on relations with Saudi Arabia and he would consider those ideas "only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America."