concerned if you've got the evidence and they clearly believe they have that gives you leverage within the context of an investigation within the context of a criminal case being pursued through the courts that's an ordinary criminal case that's an ordinary pursuit of right and wrong justice and law etc this particular case is anything but ordinary it is extraordinary so many levels so leverage yeah ok you've got it how do you deploy it how do you utilize it well it's a it's the reaction of the rest of the world that matters i mean if you bring a comparison actually to what happened to litvinenko in london this was this was effectively state sponsored the person that did it were able to trail them straight back pretty much to putin putin celebrated the person that committed the murder and actually what's happened while there's been there's been lots of you know financial issues for russia since then there's been sanctions but actually no one's been

prosecuted and and i can tell you probably no one will ever be prosecuted so so where do we go with this what's the end result i think it's the disgust of the rest of the world that really matters and the reaction of the rest of the world towards saudi arabia as a result of this i mean that could change things that could amend things but the chances of getting these people in front of a court pretty pretty low i should think. simplify this for us chris or simplify it in a way that i can understand if say you've got the accused in court in this case saudi arabia and you've got a witness for the defense in big inverted commas in this case the us president donald trump because he's he still clearly wants to push this line innocent until shown to be guilty if that witness for the defense then says i believe he's dead i know he's dead and i know who did it because i'm reacting to this leverage this evidence that the turks say they have does that spin spin the table completely at

that point when the president of the united states says i believe the saudis killed this man does that alter the dynamic well it does in as much from a political sense what it what i would say is you know in any crime investigation what you're trying to find out is who committed the crime who helped who was in part of a conspiracy to commit this crime and of course the people that would be interviewed on that are the people that were actually in the room at the time or in the country at the time and then they would of course have the opportunity to say well someone else told me to do it that's never going to happen is it that's never going to that's never going to be put in front of a jury or a judge or whatever the turks do with this this this is going to this is going to plan much bigger on the on the big the big world stage and i don't think this'll ever involve a court proceedings chris as a thank you so much. well as we were just saying that the u.s.

president donald trump has accepted the jamal khashoggi is probably dead donald trump says there will be severe consequences for saudi arabia if it's found to be responsible for the killing and comes as more than forty members of the u.s. congress called for sanctions against saudi arabia in a letter to donald trump and also the treasury secretary steve has added his name to the growing list of international figures who've withdrawn from the forthcoming financial conference in rio it's the davos in the desert get together that we were talking about with jamal in istanbul we'll get latest reaction from the white house correspondent shortly but first mike hanna wraps up the developments of the states in the past twelve hours or so. it was a somber president trump who for the first time publicly acknowledged the possibility that jamal khashoggi is dead it certainly looks that way to me it's very sad gently. he says he's still waiting for the results of various investigations but if there's evidence there will be serious consequences for saudi

arabia have to be very severe i mean it is bad. but we'll see what happens trump's comments follow the meeting with the secretary of state mike pompei oh who briefed the president on his meetings with saudi and turkish leaders there are lots of stories out there about what has happened we just going to allow the process to move forward. a lot of facts to unfold and as they unfold as we make a determination for ourselves about what happened there based on the facts that are presented to us the united states will determine what the appropriate response rightly and significantly straight after the meeting it was confirmed that treasury secretary steve had canceled a trip to an investment conference in riyadh later this month the first tangible sign of any action against saudi arabia by the trump administration. and yet another bipartisan call from congress for the president to determine accountability and impose sanctions against those found responsible this in

a letter from more than forty house members which also said additionally we are set you promptly disclose whether the united states intercepted communications among saudi officials discussing plans to detain mystical shogi and advise what actions were taken to warn him of any attack but the president occupied on this evening at least with yet another campaign rally the mid term elections looming and his handling of the current diplomatic crisis just one of a number of issues which will determine how people vote mike hanna al-jazeera washington the white house correspondent kimberly you get the feeling that this administration is stretching it had its head because it may be wants this to go at a certain speed but the speed is running now in fourth and fifth gear and mr trump would maybe like to slow the whole thing down a bit. there's no question that this is a ministration was to slow this down

a bit and we saw that very deliberate attempt to do so by the u.s. secretary of state of thursday outside the white house where he said that he was essentially advising the president to give this a few more days to allow the saudis and also the turks to complete their investigation then the united states would look at the intelligence and then make its own determination there's no question that cynics particularly here in the united states are looking at the collective statements coming out of this white house in the last week and surmising that this is a white house that is trying to buy time because its strategic ally saudi arabia that it supports needs that time to find a scapegoat to allow them to extricate themselves from what has become a global spotlight on their policies with regard to human rights and how they treat journalists with respect to descend so this is problematic for the white house because its whole middle east foundation in terms of policy liaison the fact that

they've chosen saudi arabia to be a strategic partner as they gear up and continue to confront iran this is something that might come peo did and pushed for as a not just a member of congress but now as secretary of state the national security advisor john bolton has this interest as well as the president's son in law jared cushion or who all three of these men have been advising him and of course we have these slated. to be leveled in early november and that will in fact of lee target iran's oil exports and and knowing that there will be a supply issue in terms of trying to keep the cost down for american consumers donald trump is relying on saudi arabia so when you pull back look at the wide picture very obvious to many here in the united states and around the world why the u.s. might have a vested interest in trying to buy time not just for saudi arabia but also for the united states you mentioned general. i mean he's plugged in to the network in

jerusalem clearly very close very good friends with benjamin netanyahu the israeli prime minister and yet also we understand he has a very good working relationship with the crown prince mohammed bin selman but does there come a point however when somebody someplace in washington has to say look ok we haven't found the silver bullet we haven't got a criminal case that's been prosecuted through the courts but those relationships are too toxic to even let them carry on functioning in the shallowest of ways. yeah you know you're absolutely right and members of congress with increasing days we heard of mechanics report the house members who are coming forward we've had that on the heels of the senators who are coming forward pressuring this white house to block arm sales to sanction to even rethink the whole military support for saudi arabia there's no question that the relationship between jared cushion or the

crown prince mohammed bin solomon is being seen increasingly as somewhat of an embarrassment to the united states the fact that not only did he have negative press earlier a few months ago when mohamed been solved and boasted of having shared or in his pocket so to speak but the fact that gerrard has made. it best would be the way of describing some of his conversations with the crown prince the fact that he was taking personal phone calls outside of government channels just shows the relationship is cozy to say the least but what you can take from all of this is very quickly there's a bit of tone deafness when it comes to the trumpet ministration on the story and i don't think that anything underscores that more than some of the domestic pushback he's getting in the last few hours after some comments he made at a campaign rally where he was boasting about violence against another journalist a guardian reporter in fact by a local politician in montana donald trump saying that he was praising the local

politician who who carried out this assault which he did some community service for this saying he's my guy anyone who can body slam like him he's my guy it just shows that this president doesn't seem to have an understanding is the world is focused on the atrocious situation that has faced. while he's in one breath saying that there should be severe consequences just hours later he's praising violence against a journalist is taking place in another part of the world they get underscores just how much this white house maybe doesn't grasp fully the complexity of the situation facing it thank you. ok let's take a closer look at the man who's at the center of this global story jamal criticized as monarchy after the crown prince mohammed bin solomon became the central power in the kingdom last year the journalist accuse the thirty three year old crown prince of introducing what he called a new era of fear intimidation arrest and public shaming fearing for his safety he fled to the u.s. in september last year where he wrote a regular column for the washington post but before his career as

a journalist i should say was close to the saudi royal family and served as an advisor to senior officials steve clemons is editor at large at the atlantic he joins us now from washington steve clemons given the revelations we've had in the past hour can you to share with us your thoughts at this time. well i think my major thoughts right now are many of us are dismayed that the american president and his secretary of state have been overtly and in broad daylight helping the saudis to try and create fabricated lies about what may have happened it's been a fascinating dance to see turkish intelligence sort of leaked to their lead press what happened early on the rest of us both your excellent press and other western press have been trying to catch up with the revelations and and report them as responsible journalists but the fact is that the knowledge of what happened to jamal khashoggi has been very clear from early on and in all of this time we've

seen a saudi government essentially not walk up or admit or do anything to seriously process this and then we see the u.s. government complicit in that fabrication and we many of us in washington knew jamal i've known jamal for fifteen years many of us know this jamal it's not about those human relationships but it is about the overt killing and murder on government project property extra judicially extraterritorial by an ally of the united states and a stent simply allegedly under the direction of the rising crown prince in saudi arabia and i think that is such a toxic situation and as your previous commentator excellently said president trump is unbelievably tone deaf in this moment and doesn't i think understand the seriousness this will not go away overnight as i think some in the white house have been hoping why is he all with the question of the way what has to change before he gets less than the years at the moment. well i've been waiting and as we've

watched this sort of political scene the last two years for the legislative branch of the government which is controlled by the republicans to demonstrate that it had any resolve any backbone to preserve its own parag of the white house we've never seen this before where we've had a party controlling the house of representatives the senate and the white house essentially in such unison in the past under president bush the republican party controlled all three branches of government and you know the at least those two branches of government and still you had collisions and clashes but not with donald trump donald trump has been able to bully and harass legislators this jamal khashoggi incident is so outrageous and has animated even close supporters of the president like senator lindsey graham and others like senator marco rubio this is a long list of republicans that are disgusted by what they have heard about the

case and this may be the first moment that that creates a real change in their behavior these if he the president the president will respond to that if not to the humanitarian issues about what happened to a prominent global journalist what's this is about the trumpet ministrations for you that seems to say oh seems to signal it's not that they don't know how to play catch up it's almost as if they're refusing to play catch up and mr trump does his you know when he's doorsteps and he's also questions he sits there in the end of the oval office with his arms folded looking very threatened the body language is very negative very difficult questions because he seems to not want to get ahead of this. this is consistent with his behavior i mean i think one he wants the saudis to do what he does with various accusations of things that he has done deny deny deny deny it never never give in never admit anything you may have done so there's sort of a gravity listen vironment when it comes to the truth with regard to that and the

other dimension of this is let's leave saudi arabia aside for a moment he has with people like kim jong un in north korea vladimir putin and others had a kind of odd affinity for autocrats in the world they behave in outrageous ways while he is bullied democrats running governments around the world and then with saudi arabia he and his son in law geared christian are invested big in saudi arabia it was his first foreign trip you may remember that wonderful picture of of donald trump with the king and crown prince around the orb this was his chosen first place to go at when he came into the presidency and jared kirshner and donald trump support in my opinion gave mohamed bin salma and then the second in line the into the throne the kind of political half within the family and with his father to oust mohamed bin nayef a trusted person to the u.s.

intelligence and defense agencies and i think broadly elsewhere in the world and so you had a family tussle within the royal family in saudi arabia that jared person or donald trump were directly involved in in my view and that gave the ascension of mohammed bin solomon to the crown prince position a huge boost and so they are builtin if you will and they are trying to defend those equities that they have when you talk about this steve can i ask you a question i know you're not a trade secretary i know you're not a foreign minister but olcott questions and being aust of the relevant foreign ministers for those countries germany the netherlands the u.k. who will pull the going to davos in the can i ask you this in your opinion why is america still doing any business at all no matter how much it's with saudi arabia because we're talking here about a man who had residency rights in the u.s. . well that's a very good question under our law though he was not a u.s. citizen jamal khashoggi was considered a u.s. person given his permanent status so i think that's

a very important distinction thank you for raising it i think the broader side of saudi arabia and this is something that my friends on the progressive liberal side don't understand saudi arabia has been a stalwart ally of u.s. foreign policy for decades and decades and decades behind the scenes helping pakistan when we needed them to so the infrastructure of relationships in intelligence and national security and energy has been huge and so the question is given yemen given some of the change behaviors given activists that are languishing in jail as jamal khashoggi often wrote about given other behaviors we've seen out of the recent saudi arabia it is put enormous tension on that long deep relationship that was often in the closet not often talked about but never questioned and so that is why the trade off between all of that legacy of support that many people don't want to admit and discuss is something that isn't just a binary switch to turn on and off and i think it's why i've been surprised thus

far that the royal family and that the king himself doesn't understand that jeopardizing that infrastructure is what is about to happen i mean right now if his son mohammed bin some on were to ascend to the throne it changes the game in prospects for saudi arabia together because no one will invest in the country saudi arabia will be pushed to the side of events rather than to be fundamentally core to them and i think these big cosmic issues are being discussed in riyadh at some level right now steve clemons in washington thank you so much. well the ripple effects of the how should she case are being felt in brussels as well as elsewhere where evaders a meeting to discuss a variety of issues affecting member states as we've been discussing there the u.k. the french the dutch governments representatives from those three administrations all canceling plans to travel to saudi arabia others have been voicing concerns to paul brennan joins us live from brussels paula see jeremy hunt the u.k. foreign secretary being asked by the media in the u.k.

right why are we doing business with saudi arabia and i guess that's the next go to point to this inquisition here for countries who continue to maintain that relationship because even if they're not going to davos in the desert they're not going to start dismantling those contracts. yes i mean we're in the midst of three back to back summits here we have the european council just e.u. leaders yesterday and then today we've got the a sam summit which brings together european leaders with asian leaders and then azizi and summit which happens to see evening and the central three theme through all three of them is good governance is the rules based world order is political cultural social and economic xchange the alleged murder of a dissident journalists in an overseas consulate as is alleged saudi arabia has conducted basically crosses

a red line that these countries meeting here in brussels cannot ignore yes saudi arabia invests a large amount of money in european technology in european military hardware but the allegations relating to jamal khashoggi. they simply can't be ignored it is something that needs a response now what's important to stress is that the leaders who've been meeting here in brussels have been towing tiptoeing a very cautious line in between whether they actually come out right and condemn it or whether they ask for a full investigation to be completed first that they're going for the investigation first on the reason why is because yes leaks by unnamed turkish security sources to the media will certainly inform opinion and it is informing opinion on the opinion of saudi arabia is in the gutter frankly but it can't necessarily be used to dictate policy and the leaders here want to know the full details of the outcome of

the investigation because determining the response will will depend on that investigation do they go for sanctioning saudi arabia as a nation do they decide to go magnitsky act for example against individuals who the investigation might pinpoint as being solely responsible or responsible and a group of the language is very strong indeed let's have a listen to the french president. and as you say jeremy hunt the british foreign secretary talks about just why this is apparent to the europeans. leafy. the facts we know today are mr g. stream the serious and worrying we expect to throw light on this matter we have had exchanges with saudi authorities to clarify all this but in the current circumstances we have decided to postpone political visits including that of our economy minister you know what we have been very clear yes we want to hear the results of this investigation we want to see if it's credible if it's independent

but if the stories that we're reading turn out to be true will that have an effect on our relationship with saudi river yes it will because if the stories are true and it is still and if they would be totally ghost of values and what we stand for as a country. now the europeans don't want to jump into anything hastily as i say there are billions of pounds and billions of dollars worth of investments and thousands of jobs that depend on saudi investment in europe but that said the response will have to come and whether it's sanctions or whether it's isolation whether it's some kind of other hybrid kind of response it will depend on the outcome of the investigation but make no mistake the europeans are very gravely worried about what is allegedly going on in that consulate in istanbul paul thanks very much foreign direct investment in serbia arabia had already fallen to

historically low levels before jamal went missing but since the allegations of his killing many multinational companies and individuals see their. investment summit in the desert is due to be held in rio next week matheson with more. only last week christine legarde the head of the international monetary fund said she was still going to saudi arabia even though she was horrified at the disappearance of jamal khashoggi now her office says her trip is being deferred jamie dimon the c.e.o. of j.p. morgan chase has also pulled out it's had eighty five years of business in saudi arabia and began by helping us oil firms start up their stephen schwartz one chief executive of blackstone isn't going either he said to have been one of the first western finance is to actively court crown prince mohammed bin salman bill ford of the ford motor company has pulled out two he's blaming

a conflict ford was hoping to boost sales after saudi arabian women were allowed to drive media companies including c n.b.c. financial times c.n.n. and the new york times have also withdrawn so have some banks including h.s.b.c. b.n.p. power and so cities in iraq some countries have said they won't be sending trade delegations but it's important to remember this just because key individuals might not be going that doesn't guarantee their organizations or their countries won't be represented u.s. treasury secretary steven minocin and the multinational conglomerate softbank chose to wait before making a decision this conference was a chance for the saudis to resuscitate the business confidence which has been slacking off in certain sectors for months some investors may now need a lot of persuading. well the saudi crown prince mohammed bin solomon's rapid political rise to the international community by surprise in the past eighteen

months has consolidated power and tried to project himself as a reformer and a modernizing bops the to search the cases when the spotlight's on top of the policies he's led to his dosage bari. since is debut on the world stage it's been a rapid rise for saudi crown prince mohammed bin samon in two thousand and fifteen seemingly out of nowhere the twenty nine year old favorite son of saudi arabia's king solomon been up to lizzie's was appointed defense minister he became chief architect of saudi arabia's military intervention in yemen a campaign of aerial bombardment that has helped create what the un calls the worst humanitarian crisis in the world human rights organizations accuse the saudi led coalition of bombing civilian targets such as hospitals and schools in saudi arabia where most of the population is under thirty been so man has been heralded as

a man who would bring much needed economic and social reforms but that's changed in recent months however no hell of a sermon with with the with general how it's come about at a time when reforms have been slowing down he gave women the right to drive but imprison women activists there are still many reforms that have been take been very slow in implementing in saudi arabia and people quite frankly have run out of patience with regard to have a visit. in june last year mohammed been some on that the blockade against qatar creating the worst crisis in the g.c.c. since its inception in november saudi security forces arrested several hundred business leaders and senior royals many had to pay billions of dollars to secure their release. the saudi government called it an anti-corruption purge but analysts said that this was mohamed bin solomon's way of removing people who could potentially pose a threat to his power and also

a way to raise much needed funds for a struggling economy later that same month saudi forces detained lebanese prime minister saad hariri on a visit to the kingdom it took weeks before he was released in march of this year mohammed bin solomon visited the united states the whirlwind tour and charm offensive led to largely favorable coverage in the international media helping the crown prince sell his image as a reformer who would open saudi arabia up to innovation and investment since then a range of other civil society activists and clerics have been jailed observers say saudi arabia strategic relationship with western powers is a delicate one to balance i think the problem that the white house has and indeed what a lot of european allies have is that there are a lot of cases going on in the region a lot of crises in which saudi arabia is a major player and is required to be a major ally this includes issues regarding iran this includes issues in yemen this

includes issues regarding palestine and israel now with the jamal khashoggi suspected murder inside the saudi consulate in istanbul causing more international outrage critics wonder if the saudi crown prince can survive the scrutiny. for such a party al jazeera ok local developments global developments on the story as well more on the shot we'll put that in context for us years later senior political analyst sitting in our london bureau for us now we're getting these claims marwan the king selma is trying to reign in the crown prince oh sure reading of that. to be expected especially after what we've seen over the last two weeks over the last three years from the crown prince and certainly after the visit of the secretary of state to riyadh where clearly very shima saudi arabia was put to the

test either you do something and you do it quickly investigate and do something about who are very is responsible or our bilateral relations are going to be risked so in so many ways it's clear that it's gonna probably be more likely to snow over riyadh than for this crisis to blow over everyone knows that now and everyone understands that something's got to give the only way you can maintain saudi western style with the american relations at this point in time is just a separate bilateral state to state relations and the interests involved including trade and so on so forth from the political level meaning from mohammed bin solomon's presence and his relationship with western leaders and what they now think of him so the only way out of the crisis as i see it peter is for those in

saudi arabia to say ok you know if the problem is mohammed mr man if he is responsible for the murder then we will do something about him i think clipping his wings is probably the next big thing in riyadh what's the difference for king solomon between reigning somebody in and sidelining them because if you keep them reindeer in if being reigned in is the status quo the sidelined. well look you know when it comes to. what the saudis do and how will they do it and when do they do it we've already gone through years and years and years especially in the western mind something about three thing the arabs with dignity and something about you know and all that sort of oriental history cavalry and i think clearly from what we've seen from a.o. smiling to the cameras while talking to ben solomon but then telling him some some serious stuff about having to do an investigation and basically telling him into

his face about what the united states expects of a client of the united states in the middle east that's a different thing so i think when it comes to what next i think everyone understands in washington and european capitals that things don't happen overnight in saudi arabia and this is going to happen in a way that saves face meaning the king is not simply going to suck in five his son as it where to please donald trump and thirty seven eight zero let alone present to one so this is going to have been in a certain process and setting changing of the house rules in certain ways of the consumptive council meeting in the way the investigation's going to be approach in what happens after the midterm elections and how much american pressure there would be on saudi arabia or it could be a whole other thing bitter like many fact checking another crisis hoping that this thing will blow over and then trying to pave the way through some sort of

a transition but things do take time and so they things have been improving for a long time inside by the way but thanks to money and thanks to those soldiers to fidget location in the middle east and and it's its capacity to serve the united states and others has helped it maintain a certain stability but in the united states they like stable autocrats their own like reckless feckless autocrats and that's. what muhammad is a month proved to be over the last three years what was the relationship like to date between the king and the crown prince and to what degree has this saga dented or damaged or even completely fractured that relationship. that's a very important question so much so that it actually. it actually has risen a lot of bros around the world people just were astonished why does the king since

the beginning of two thousand and fifteen has giving so much authority to his crown prince beginning with defense ministry and then soon after the crown prince launched the war against him and then crown crown prince then crown prince and in the process the ambitious. crown prince mohammed and so on gathered so much authority that he became control of the economy and spoil became control of the military his defense minister became control of the domestic affairs since like the fact the interior minister became in charge of religious affairs hence he's the one who dictated what is and is not islamic in the kingdom and last but very relevant to us and he became the head of intelligence he was in charge and he oversaw. he oversaw everything that we do with intelligence and hence the his the responsibility for murder.