Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's "heinous murder" would have been unthinkable "without US backing," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday.
"I don't think that any country would dare to do such a thing without US backing," Rouhani said in remarks to cabinet broadcast on state television.
Rouhani said that before Khashoggi's murder "it would have been unthinkable that in this day and age we would witness such an organised felony.
"It is extremely significant that an institution planned such a heinous murder.
"The tribal group that is ruling that nation (Saudi Arabia) has a security margin. That security margin is that it relies on US backing. It is this superpower that is backing them."