Riyadh: Khashoggi died as a result of a quarrel with a number of people inside the consulate!!!

The Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul after a fight broke out with a number of people inside the consulate building according to official statement in Riyadh.

Meanwhile the US President Donald Trump said Riyadh’s interpretation was “trustworthy!”, saying it was “an important first step”.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdul Aziz ordered the release of deputy intelligence chief Ahmed Al Asiri and other intelligence officials from office, while Riyadh said that it had arrested 18 Saudis in connection with the case.

King Salman also ordered the exemption of the Chancellor at the Royal Court at the rank of Minister Saud Al Qahtani.

“We have not yet finished our assessment or investigation, but I think it is an important first step”, Trump said, commenting on the Saudi announcement.

“We are conducting an investigation right now.

We have a lot of people working on this issue … and we have other countries working on it.

This is a very serious problem”.

“If it is too early to talk about this”, Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about the possibility of imposing sanctions on Riyadh.

“If a form of punishment is imposed, Or something we may decide to do … we would rather not act as a punitive measure to cancel $ 110 billion in jobs, which would mean 600,000 jobs”, he said, referring to a huge arms deal the United States signed with the kingdom.

Riyadh has been under international pressure following the disappearance of the Saudi journalist after he entered his consulate in Istanbul on October 2, in a case that prompted many Western officials and businessmen to cancel their participation in an important economic conference in Riyadh next week.

Khashoggi was tortured and killed inside the consulate by a Saudi team that came specifically to Turkey to assassinate him, officials said, while Riyadh denied having ordered him killed.

“The preliminary investigations conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office showed that the suspect went to Istanbul to meet with Jamal Khashoggi for the appearance of indications that he could return to the country”, the official SPA news agency reported without revealing the identity of the suspect.

The statement added, “The results of preliminary investigations revealed that the discussions that took place with the citizen Jamal Khashoggi during his presence in the Consulate of the Kingdom in Istanbul by the suspects did not go as required and developed in a negative led to a fight and a clash of hands between them and the citizen Jamal Khashoggi, To his death”.

He added that these people tried to “cover up what happened and coverage of that”, adding that “investigations in this case is continuing with the detainees on their own and the number of 18 people of Saudi nationality”.

The kingdom confirmed that Khashoggi left the consulate building shortly after he entered and allowed a Turkish investigation team to search him.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview with Bloomberg: “What I know is that he came in and out a few minutes or maybe an hour.

I’m not sure”.

It was not clear from the official Saudi statements, which blamed only the suspects, on the fate of the journalist who lived in the United States and wrote articles in the Washington Post criticizing the Crown Prince’s policies.

Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia in 2017 amid a campaign of arrests led by the crown prince and included writers, clerics, jurists, princes and politicians.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterich said the Khashoggi killing was “deeply disturbing”, stressing “the need for a speedy, thorough and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Khashoggi’s death and for the full accountability of those responsible”.

In addition to Al Asiri and Al Qahtani, the King’s decision included the exemption of Assistant Chief of General Intelligence for Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Mohammad bin Saleh Al Rumaih, Assistant Chief of General Intelligence for Human Resources, Major General Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Shaya and Director General of Security and Protection headed by General Intelligence.

The king also issued a decision to form a ministerial committee headed by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to restructure the General Intelligence Service and determine its powers.

The official SPA news agency said the decision came at the recommendation of the crown prince against Khashoggi’s case.

Al Asiri is close to the crown prince and attends meetings with visiting officials of the kingdom and was the spokesman for the Saudi-led military alliance in Yemen.

Al Qahtani is also known for his closeness to the crown prince.

He has appeared with him in Tire with kings and chiefs who posted them on his Twitter account, writing tweets that are often offensive.

Before Riyadh confirmed the killing of Khashoggi in the consulate, the Turkish presidency announced on Saturday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed with Saudi King Salman during a telephone conversation to continue bilateral cooperation in the investigation, the second telephone conversation between the two leaders on this issue.

A source in the Turkish presidency, speaking on condition of anonymity, said during their telephone conversation on Friday evening, which came after a first call between them on Sunday stressed President Erdogan and King Salman, “the importance of continuing to work together in full cooperation”.

The source added that the two leaders exchanged information on their country’s investigations into Khashoggi’s case.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Friday after a visit to Riyadh, during which he met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and Crown Prince, that Washington had a “wide range of possible responses” to Saudi Arabia if it was to be found responsible for Khashoggi’s disappearance.

Pompeo continued that the Saudis “take responsibility as long as the matter is at the consulate.

They therefore have a responsibility to shed light on this issue”.

Riyadh has vowed any sanctions against it would face a “bigger response”.

A few hours after the Saudi authorities blamed Khashoggi for the deaths he met at the consulate, the White House announced that the United States was “sad” to confirm his death.

Worth mentioning that Saudi Attorney-General Saud bin Abdullah Al Mouajab has announced that preliminary investigations into the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi have shown his death and 18 people have been arrested as part of the investigation.

“Preliminary investigations conducted by the Public Prosecution on the disappearance of the citizen, Jamal bin Ahmad Khashoggi, showed that the discussions that took place between him and the people who met him while he was in the consulate of the kingdom in the Kingdom”, Al Mouajab said in a statement issued by the official SPA news agency.

Istanbul led to a quarrel and clashing hands with him, which led to his death”.

“The Public Prosecution confirms that its investigations into this case are continuing with the 18 detainees, all of whom are Saudi nationals, in preparation for reaching all facts and declaring all those involved in this case accountable and bringing them to justice”.

Saudi Arabia faces widespread international criticism over the disappearance of Khashoggi, who has criticized the kingdom’s policies in many areas after entering his consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on Oct. 2.

Earlier, Turkish and Saudi authorities offered conflicting accounts of Khashoggi’s whereabouts, which no one has seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Ankara said he did not leave the building while Riyadh insisted he had left shortly after finishing work on his family condition.

Khashoggi was the editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily Al-Watan, and he also served as adviser to Prince Turki Al Faisal, the former Saudi ambassador to Washington, but left the country after Prince Mohammed bin Salman was crown prince.

The Saudi journalist has been in the United States for more than a year and since then has written articles in the Washington Post criticizing Saudi policies toward Qatar and Canada, the war in Yemen and dealing with the media and activists.

On October 11, one of the closest advisers to the Saudi monarch, Prince of Mecca, Khaled al-Faisal, under the direction of King Salman, visited Turkey, during which Erdogan met, and the two sides agreed to form a joint task force to investigate Khashoggi’s disappearance.

King Salman, who according to some media reports, decided to personally intervene to contain the crisis related to the fate of the Saudi journalist, the Attorney General of the Kingdom, launched an internal investigation based on the findings and conclusions of the Joint Task Force.

A number of Western countries and organizations, led by the United States, Britain and the European Union, called on Riyadh to reveal the fate of Khashoggi, while Arab countries expressed their solidarity with Saudi Arabia in the face of threats to impose sanctions if proven involvement in the disappearance of the journalist.