Saudi Prince denies ordering of Khashoggi killing, offers talks for political solution for
yemen civil war
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia – Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud has denied any involvement in the killing of Washington Post columnist – Jamal Khashoggi but has taken the full responsibility, as the country’s leader, over what had happened.
The statement came during his 60 minutes exclusive interview to the leading news channel CBS, which was aired on Sunday, September 29, 2019. The CBS News is the news division of American television and radio service CBS.
On being questioned by the journalist – Norah O’Donnell if he ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, he replied, “Absolutely not. This was a heinous crime. But I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government.”
He also said, “When a crime is committed against a Saudi citizen by officials, working for the Saudi government, as a leader I must take responsibility. This was a mistake. And I must take all actions to avoid such a thing in the future.”
Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian rebel, author, columnist for ‘The Washington Post’ and a General Manager and Editor-In-Chief of Al-Arab News Channel. He was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 by agents of the Saudi Government after they had allegedly used Israeli spyware to hack his cell phone. Media reports say his body was dismembered. To this day, his remains have not been found. His murder drew worldwide anger.
Prior to this, Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile. He accused the Saudi Government of banning him from Twitter. He wrote articles critical of the Saudi Arabia, the King of Saudi Arabia – Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Crown Prince and Saudi Arabia’s Yemen intervention in 2015.
Norah also questioned him that 2 of his closest advisors who are accused of orchestrating this plot were fired by the King of Saudi Arabia. The Crown Prince responded that investigations are being carried out and once the charges are proved, the accused will be taken to Court.
In addition, the journalist also discussed the increasing tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Crown Prince Crown said that he agrees with the U.S. Secretary of State – Mike Pompeo that the attacks at 2 Saudi owned Aramco oil fields were carried out by Iran and not the Yemen based Houthi group. As a matter of fact, the drone attack affected the 5.5% of the world’s energy needs.
Ruling out the possibility of war with Iran, he said that war with Iran would result in the collapse of world economy. The region represents about 30% of the world’s energy supplies, about 20% of global trade passages, about 4% of the world GDP.
He even mentioned that the President of U.S. – Donald Trump has been asking Iran to sit down at table and discuss the now abandoned Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal but Iran is not ready to discuss the deal.
The JCPOA deal or Iran nuclear deal was reached in Vienna on July 14, 2015, between Iran, the P5+1 (the 5 permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, United States – plus Germany) and European Union (E.U.).
As per the agreement, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, and reduce by about 2/3rd the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years. For the next 15 years Iran was not allowed to enrich uranium up to 3.67%. However, trouble started when U.S. abandoned the deal in May 2018 and started imposing sanctions on Iran.
