US President Donald Trump says the US will not levy additional punitive measures at this time against Saudi Arabia over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump said in a statement today that the US does not condone the killing of the US-based Saudi columnist, but that "foolishly" cancelling US$110 billion in arms sales — as some in Congress have suggested — would only mean that Saudi Arabia would go to other countries to acquire them.
Trump says the King and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia "vigorously deny" any knowledge of the planning and execution of the October 2 murder of the Washington Post columnist at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Trump says that Saudi Arabia is a "spectacular ally" and that he's not convinced that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was directly responsible for Khashoggi's death.
He says "it could well be that the crown prince had knowledge".
