A US intelligence report has found that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder of exiled Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. The report released by the Biden administration says the prince approved a plan to either "capture or kill" Khashoggi. The US announced sanctions on dozens of Saudis but not the prince himself. Saudi Arabia rejected the report, calling it "negative, false and unacceptable". Crown Prince Mohammed, who is effectively the kingdom's ruler, has denied any role in the murder. Khashoggi was killed while visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, and his body cut up. The 59-year-old journalist had once been an adviser to the Saudi government and close to the royal family but he fell out of favour and went into self-imposed exile in the US in 2017. From there, he wrote a monthly column in the Washington Post in which he criticised the policies of Prince Mohammed. What does the report find? "We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi," the report by the office of the US director of national intelligence says. The crown prince is the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and is considered to be the effective ruler of the kingdom. The intelligence report lists three reasons for believing that the crown prince must have approved the operation: His control of decision-making in the kingdom since 2017 The direct involvement in the operation of one of his advisers as well as members of his protective detail His "support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad" The report goes on to name individuals allegedly complicit in, or responsible for, Khashoggi's death. But it says "we do not know how far in advance" those involved planned to harm him. Saudi authorities have blamed the killing on a "rogue operation" by a team of agents sent to return the journalist to the kingdom, and a Saudi court tried and sentenced five individuals to 20 years in prison last September, after initially sentencing them to death. In 2019, UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard accused the Saudi state of the "deliberate, premeditated execution" of Khashoggi and dismissed the Saudi trial as an "antithesis of justice". What does this mean for US-Saudi relations? Shortly after the report was released, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the travel restrictions, dubbed the "Khashoggi Ban". Those targeted are "believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities", he said. "Perpetrators targeting perceived dissidents on behalf of any foreign government should not be permitted to reach American soil," he warned. In addition, the treasury department sanctioned some of those around the crown prince: one of his close aides, former deputy intelligence chief Ahmad Asiri, as well as his personal protective force, which was involved in the killing. As far back as 2018, the CIA reportedly believed that the crown prince had ordered the murder but the allegation that he was involved has never been made publicly by US officials until now. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, is a key American ally in the Middle East. US President Joe Biden is expected to take a firmer line than his predecessor Donald Trump on human rights and the rule of law in Saudi Arabia. In a phone call on Thursday with King Salman, the president "affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law", the White House said. According to sources quoted by Reuters news agency, the Biden administration is also considering the cancellation of arms deals with Saudi Arabia that pose human rights concerns as well as the limiting of future military sales to "defensive" weapons. Dismissing the US report, the Saudi foreign ministry insisted that those responsible for the crime had been properly investigated and justice had been served. "It is truly unfortunate that this report, with its unjustified and inaccurate conclusions, is issued while the Kingdom had clearly denounced this heinous crime, and the Kingdom's leadership took the necessary steps to ensure that such a tragedy never takes place again," it added. It further rejected "any measure that infringes upon its leadership, sovereignty, and the independence of its judicial system". How was Khashoggi killed? Khashoggi went to the consulate in October 2018 in order to obtain papers allowing him to marry his Turkish fiancée. He had allegedly received assurances from the crown prince's brother, Prince Khalid bin Salman, who was ambassador to the US at the time, that it would be safe to visit the consulate. Prince Khalid has denied any communication with the journalist. According to Saudi prosecutors, Khashoggi was forcibly restrained after a struggle and injected with a large amount of a drug, resulting in an overdose that led to his death. His body was then dismembered and handed over to a local "collaborator" outside the consulate, prosecutors said. The remains were never found. Details were revealed in transcripts of purported audio recordings of the killing obtained by Turkish intelligence. Source: BBC AH

US President Joe Biden said Wednesday he has already seen a soon-to-be released intelligence report detailing the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. “Yes I have,” he told reporters when asked if he’d read the intelligence assessment. Earlier, the White House said the unclassified report would be out “soon.” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Biden was also “soon” due to speak with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman for the first time since taking office in January. Psaki would not confirm a report in Axios that the Biden call with Salman would take place Wednesday and that the unclassified intelligence report would be published Thursday. Asked when the call would take place, Biden only said: “We’re going to be talking to him, I have not spoken to him yet.” Khashoggi, a Saudi who wrote for The Washington Post and was a US resident, was killed and dismembered in 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The CIA has directly linked Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the murder. He has accepted overall responsibility, as his country’s leader, but denies a personal link. Biden has stressed he will “recalibrate” the US relationship with Saudi Arabia. This will mean steering away from former president Donald Trump’s reliance on Prince Mohammed and dealing directly with the king, the White House says. However, there are clearly limits to how far the Biden administration is ready to go in punishing oil-rich Saudi Arabia, a strategic ally in the Islamic world. “He will speak out when there are human rights abuses, about the lack of freedom of speech, or the lack of freedom of media and expression,” Psaki said. “At the same time, we have a long relationship with Saudi Arabia. They are being attacked in the region and that is certainly an area where we continue to work with them.” The contents of the intelligence report will pile pressure on the Saudi leadership, which got little pushback from the Trump administration. Already the episode has badly tarnished the reputation of the powerful crown prince who had positioned himself as a forward thinking reformer in the monarchy. According to CNN on Wednesday, court documents in a Canadian civil lawsuit filed earlier this year show that two private jets used by the squad allegedly sent to murder Khashoggi were owned by a company earlier seized by Prince Mohammed. Source: AFP/BSS AH

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said he bears responsibility for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year by Saudi operatives “because it happened under my watch,” according to a PBS documentary to be broadcast next week. Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, has not spoken publicly about the killing inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The CIA and some Western governments have said he ordered it, but Saudi officials say he had no role. The death sparked a global uproar, tarnishing the crown prince’s image and imperiling ambitious plans to diversify the economy of the world’s top oil exporter and open up cloistered Saudi society. He has not since visited the United States or Europe. “It happened under my watch. I get all the responsibility, because it happened under my watch,” he told PBS’ Martin Smith, according to a preview of a documentary, “The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia,” set to air on Oct. 1, ahead of the one-year anniversary of Khashoggi’s death. After initial denials, the official Saudi narrative blamed the murder on rogue operatives. The public prosecutor said the then-deputy intelligence chief ordered the repatriation of Khashoggi, a royal insider who became an outspoken critic, but the lead negotiator ordered him killed after discussions for his return failed. Saud al-Qahtani, a former top royal adviser whom Reuters reported gave orders over Skype to the killers, briefed the hit team on Khashoggi’s activities before the operation, the prosecutor said. Asked how the killing could happen without him knowing about it, Smith quotes Prince Mohammed as saying: “We have 20 million people. We have 3 million government employees.” Smith asked whether the killers could have taken private government jets, to which the crown prince responded: “I have officials, ministers to follow things, and they’re responsible. They have the authority to do that.” Smith describes the December exchange, which apparently took place off camera, in the preview of the documentary. A senior U.S. administration official told Reuters in June the Trump administration was pressing Riyadh for “tangible progress” toward holding to account those behind the killing ahead. Eleven Saudi suspects have been put on trial in secretive proceedings but only a few hearings have been held. A U.N. report has called for Prince Mohammed and other senior Saudi officials to be investigated. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, where he was to receive papers ahead of his wedding. His body was reportedly dismembered and removed from the building, and his remains have not been found. Source: Reuters AH

Saudi Arabia on Saturday admitted that critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed during a “brawl” inside its Istanbul consulate, an explanation that President Donald Trump said he found credible but failed to convince top US lawmakers. The kingdom announced the arrest of 18 Saudis in connection with their probe and the sacking of two top officials linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has faced mounting pressure over the journalist’s disappearance. Khashoggi, a critic of the Islamic petro-state’s powerful crown prince and a Washington Post contributor, was last seen on October 2 entering his country’s consulate in Istanbul. His disappearance had been shrouded in mystery and triggered an international crisis, with Turkish officials accusing Saudi Arabia of a state-sponsored killing and dismembering his body. The admission of his death after vehement denials by the Gulf kingdom came amid threats of US sanctions and leaves lingering questions about whether Prince Mohammed had any role in the affair. In the latest version of events from Riyadh, Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said Khashoggi died after talks at the consulate devolved into an altercation, without disclosing any details on the whereabouts of his body. “Discussions that took place between him and the persons who met him… at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul led to a brawl and a fist fight with the citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, which led to his death, may his soul rest in peace,” the attorney general said in a statement. The Saudi king also ordered the setting up of ministerial body under the chairmanship of the crown prince, widely known as MBS, to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence agency and “define its powers accurately”, state media said. Deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri and royal court media advisor Saud al-Qahtani, both top aides to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were sacked. – ‘Intense outcry’ – The controversy has put the kingdom — for decades a key Western ally and bulwark against Iran in the Middle East — under unprecedented pressure to offer an explanation to take the heat off its rulers. It evolved into a major crisis for Prince Mohammed, a US administration favorite whose image as a modernizing Arab reformer has been gravely undermined. US President Donald Trump said Friday that he found credible Saudi Arabia’s assertion that Khashoggi died as a result of a fight. “I do, I do,” Trump said when asked if the Saudis’ explanation was credible, while adding: “It’s early, we haven’t finished our review or investigation.” Trump had earlier said Washington could impose sanctions, but his administration had been notably slow to criticize the Gulf ally despite mounting evidence of what happened to Khashoggi. The case has presented Trump with one of the most acute foreign policy crises of his nearly two-year-old presidency. “It took an intense international outcry sustained for two weeks to acknowledge the obvious — that Khashoggi is dead, that he was killed in the Saudi consulate,” said Kristin Diwan, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “That gives you an idea of the immense financial and strategic interests that are invested in maintaining the US partnership with Saudi Arabia and its leadership.” – ‘Deeply troubled’ – Saudi officials have roundly denied that Prince Mohammed had any involvement. But a suspect identified by Turkey was said to be a frequent companion of Prince Mohammed, three others were linked to his security detail and a fifth is a high-level forensic doctor, according to The New York Times. The decision to overhaul the intelligence apparatus and sack members of MBS’s inner circle is designed to “distance the crown prince from the murder”, said analysis firm Eurasia Group. Complicating the official narrative, Ali Shihabi, head of pro-Saudi think tank Arabia Foundation which is said to be close to the government, tweeted that “Khashoggi died from a chokehold during a physical altercation, not a fist fight”, citing a senior Saudi source. But pro-government Turkish media have repeatedly claimed that Khashoggi was tortured and decapitated by a Saudi hit squad inside the diplomatic mission, although Turkey has yet to divulge details about the investigation. “Each successive narrative put out by the Saudis to explain what happened to Khashoggi has strained credulity,” Kristian Ulrichsen, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute in the United States, told AFP. “Especially because the Saudis are still unable or unwilling to produce the one piece of evidence — a body — that could provide a definitive answer one way or the other.” UN chief Antonio Gutterres said he was “deeply troubled” by the kingdom’s disclosure on Saturday, adding there needed to be “full accountability for those responsible.” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Trump ally, said he doubted the latest admission from Saudi authorities. “To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr Khashoggi is an understatement,” he tweeted. Bob Menendez, the top US Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for sanctions, saying “we need to keep up international pressure” on the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s admission comes after Turkish authorities widened their probe on Friday, searching a forest in Istanbul city for further clues. Source: AFP AH