Kushner Says US in 'fact-finding' Phase in Khashoggi Death Probe

Washington, Oct 22 (PTI) The US is still in a "fact-finding phase" about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, President Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner said Monday as he advised the Saudi regime to be fully transparent in the investigation of the Saudi dissident journalist's death.

Khashoggi, 60, was brutally killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, according to Turkish investigative agencies, who claim to have audio files with them of the incident.

"Right now, we're more in a fact-finding phase and we're obviously getting as many facts as we can from the different places and then we'll determine which facts are credible," Kushner told CNN in response to a question.

After days of conflicting statements, Saudi Arabia last week said that Khashoggi died in a fist fight inside the consulate during an interrogation.

The US has called for a detailed investigation into the killing of Khashoggi, who was an open critic of the current ruling establishment in Saudi Arabia.

President Trump has said that there would be consequences for this but has opposed the idea of cancelling major arms sale worth USD 110 billion to Saudi Arabia.

The US lawmakers have demanded severe action against Saudi Arabia. They allege that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was behind the killing of Khashoggi, who used to write for The Washington Post.

The White House, including President Trump, has said there is no concrete evidence about it. Media reports say that the crown prince and Kushner, both in their 30s, are close friends.

"The world is watching," Kushner said was his advice to the Saudi crown prince, the defacto ruler of Saudi Arabia.

"This is a very, very serious accusation. A very serious situation. To be sure you're transparent and to take this very seriously."

"We'll see" if he takes that advice, Kushner said.

He said the Trump administration is approaching Saudi explanation for Khashoggi's death with "our eyes wide open". He was responding to a question on the death of the Saudi journalist that has sparked a global outrage.

At the same time, Kushner praised the Saudi crown prince for the series of reforms that he has initiated inside the conservative country.

"A lot of the reforms they've been making there to help us track down the terror financing and also to push back against the people who are perverting the religion, have been very historic over the last year," he said.

"So we're hopeful we can keep pushing forward with a lot of the initiatives that further American interests and that push back Iran's aggression, so we're going to stay focused on that," he said, indicating that the Trump Administration is doing a balancing act between its national interest and the Saudi killing of Khashoggi.

Kushner described Saudi Arabia as a critical partner in the fight against terrorism.

"We have to deal with the long-term ideology of extremism and Saudi Arabia is a critical partner in that," he said.

"I think the President is focused on what's good for America. What are our strategic interests. Where do we share interests with other countries, let's work toward those," he said.

He defended the decades-old US-Saudi alliance.

"The Middle East is a rough place. It's been a rough place for a very long time. We have to be able to pursue our strategic objectives. But we also have to deal with what is obviously a terrible situation," he said, and asserted that it is important to maintain the US-Saudi alliance.

"We have to be able to work with our allies, and Saudi Arabia has, I think, been a very strong ally in terms of pushing back on Iran's aggression."

Kushner said he does not spend a lot of time in dealing with the critics. Instead, he is focused on making the country during the short period of time he is in the government.

"I don't respond to the critics. I think that my job is to everyday focus on what are the objectives I have to accomplish. Things come up everyday that can make that mote challenging. But we have to work through it and you look at all the different projects I've worked on from the start. In prison reform, we've had set backs. Some were self inflicted, some were not," he said.

In Mexico and Canada trade deal, he said, there were a lot of setbacks.

"Some were self inflicted, some were not. But again, there's a short period of time that you're serving in government and what we have to be doing is figuring out how do we leave our government much better off than we found it," he said.

"I come in every day trying to figure out how do we push forward to accomplish the objectives that will make the American people better off. So I don't really spend a lot of time worrying about the critics. If it's somebody who knows me, somebody who I respect and they want to give me advice or tell me something I'm doing wrong, I want to hear that. But if it's just critics out there, I don't pay a lot of attention to that," Kushner said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)