Trump On Saudi Handling of Khashoggi Murder: ’A Total Fiasco’

Local Editor

US President Donald Trump scolded Saudi Arabia for journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder and badly executed cover-up, calling it a "total fiasco from day one," while still hedging around condemning the Saudi government.

Three weeks after the journalist disappeared, the details of his killing are still murky and the cause of his death is yet unclear with Saudi officials coming with shaky explanations of Khashoggi's demise.

"There should have never been an execution or a cover-up, because it should have never happened," Trump told reporters on Tuesday.

In his attempt to criticize the Khashoggi murder without criticizing Riyadh, Trump worded his statement to almost sound like he was unhappy with how the killing and the subsequent cover-up was executed.

The US finally rolled out a set of punitive measures against Riyadh on Tuesday.

The punishment is very selective and will affect only 21 Saudi individuals the US State Department believes were involved in the killing. They will be denied entry to the US, either having their visas revoked or being made ineligible for applying.

"Bad deal, should have never been thought of. Somebody really messed up. And they had the worst cover-up ever," Trump said earlier.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team