Saudi FM: We Don’t Know How Khashoggi Was Killed

Says officials have no idea where the body is

Following a Friday admission that Saudi forces killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a surprise fistfight and a Saturday statement from an official offering a totally different account of what happened, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir offered his own take on events in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

Jubeir’s version: the Saudis have no idea what happened. He says that officials have no details on how Khashoggi was killed by the “Saudi security team” and don’t know where the body is. He said they are “determined to uncover every stone” and find out.

The talking points, above “we don’t know,” are that killing Khashoggi was a “grave mistake,” and that the crown prince definitely didn’t know anything about what happened. President Trump has been eager to see that the final version, whatever it is, doesn’t implicate the crown prince.

Still, the Saudis’ efforts to get a handle on the narrative have been problematic over the last 48 hours, to say the least. Officials were desperate to answer calls for an official report, then tried to replace that report almost immediately, then backtracked all the way to not knowing what happened at all.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.