Face of Nation : OSAKA, Japan – President Donald Trump told reporters Saturday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is doing a “spectacular job,” and repeatedly refused to say whether he would talk to the Saudi leader about the slaying of a Washington .
A week after a United Nations report implicated Bin Salman in the death of Jamal Khashoggi, Trump said it was “a great honor” to meet the crown prince and stressed the business partnership between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.
Trump did not respond to repeated questions from reporters about the killing of Khashoggi.
Instead, Trump and the Saudi prince planned to discuss U.S. weapons sales to the kingdom as well as ideas on how to contain Iran and its threat to renew a program that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
“Saudi Arabia is a good purchaser of American products,” Trump said.
Bin Salman, who will host the next G-20 summit in Saudi Arabia in November 2020, said he was looking forward to speaking with Trump.
Trump also talked about his invitation to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to meet him on Sunday at the Demilitarized Zone between South and North Korea.Later in the day, Trump will participate in the most anticipated meeting of the summit: A sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss the fate of a possible new trade agreement.
Trump has been criticized for not confronting the Saudis over Khashoggi’s killing inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey last fall.
The Senate voted 53-45 last week to block the Trump administration from selling U.S.-made weapons to Saudi Arabia and its allies, a rare rebuke of the White House by the Republican-led chamber – but the White House has threatened to veto that resolution should it reach Trump’s desk.
Khashoggi was a Saudi citizen who had grown increasingly critical of the Saudi government; fearing for his safety, he moved to the U.S. and became a permanent resident. He went to the Saudi consulate in Turkey on Oct. 2 to get some routine documents he needed to marry his fiancee and never emerged. His body has yet to be found.
A top U.N. human rights expert released a report last week detailing “credible evidence” that high-level officials in Saudi Arabia – including Bin Salman, the kingdom’s crown prince and de facto ruler – were involved in the death of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist.
