U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was still not satisfied with what he has heard from Saudi Arabia about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, but did not want to lose a $110 billion investment from the kingdom.

He said he is waiting for a report from American intelligence teams that are due back from Saudi Arabia and Turkey soon as Washington continues a tightrope walk on Khashoggi’s alleged murder.

“I am not satisfied with what I’ve heard,” Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for an election rally in Texas Monday.

President Trump first called the Saudi explanation “credible” but has since grown publicly more leery about it. “I have a great group people in Turkey right now and a great group of people in Saudi Arabia. We will know very soon. We have tremendously talented people that do this stuff very well. They’re coming back tonight, tomorrow.”

He said he had a word with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin-Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de-factor ruler at the center of international outrage over the journalist’s disappearance and death, but he did not go into details of the conversation.

But, in an interview to USA Today, he said the journalist’s death was a “plot gone awry”, buying into and recycling a dubious and widely questioned explanation rolled out by the Saudis last Friday that Khashoggi died accidentally in a fistfight after an argument.

In the interview he said the crown prince told him “he is not involved nor is the king”. Asked if he believed the Saudi royal, the president did not answer the question but went on to say that he “would be very upset about it” if the royals were found involved.

The president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who discussed the case at a separate event, said he has asked Prince Salman “just to be transparent” about the investigation. Kushner’s close ties to the Saudi prince have come under scrutiny and there are reports suggesting that he has been sidelined on this issue in White House deliberations.

Hours after Trump spoke of US intelligence teams returning from Saudi Arabia and Turkey “tonight, tomorrow”, CIA director Gina Haspel left for Turkey, possibly to examine and discuss the evidence Turkish officials have said they possess to prove Khashoggi was killed.

Khashoggi, who had lived in exile in the United States since 2017, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Riyadh has given multiple version of what followed, but finally admitted last Friday that he died in a fistfight. Turkish officials have given a more grisly version.

“And I am not satisfied with what I’ve heard.”

But the president continued to strike a cautionary and conciliatory note, pointing to the $450 billion worth of Saudi sales orders for American goods at stake, of which an estimated $110 billion are for military equipment.

“I don’t want to lose all of that investment that’s being made in our country. I don’t want to lose a million jobs,” the president said in response to a question about calls, including from Republicans, for caring less about those orders. “I don’t want to lose a $110 billion in terms of investment.”

Kushner, who is also a senior advisor to the president voiced the same sentiment separately, and stressed the importance of Saudi Arabia as an ally. “Saudi Arabia’s been I think a very strong ally in terms of pushing back against Iran’s aggression,” he said.

The US had earlier announced that treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin would skip a Davos-style meet in Saudi Arabia to register Washington’s unhappiness over the death of the journalist. But the official met Prince Salam on Monday, drawing attention at home and abroad to the Trump administration’s tightrope walk on the issue.

First Published: Oct 23, 2018 10:32 IST