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WASHINGTON: A US intelligence report released on Friday (February 26) said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a key figure in the US-Saudi relationship, “approved” the gruesome killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The prince, who is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia and who will replace the ailing King Salman, “approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the report said.
The intelligence report said that, given Prince Mohammed’s influence, it was “highly unlikely” that the 2018 assassination would have taken place without his green light. The killing also fits a pattern of “the Crown Prince’s support for the use of violent measures to silence dissidents abroad.”
READ: Jamal Khashoggi: Fallen critic of ‘extremist’ Saudi Arabia
Khashoggi, a critic of Prince Mohammed who wrote for The Washington Post and was a resident of the United States, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, then killed and hacked to pieces.
Washington is expected to impose new sanctions on Saudis who consider themselves connected to the prince, though not directly against Prince Mohammed himself. He has widely accepted the responsibility of Saudi Arabia, but denies any personal involvement.
US President Joe Biden has ordered a declassified version of the report to be released, which was first completed under his predecessor Donald Trump, as part of a reboot in which Washington is distancing itself from Prince Mohammed.
This comes on the heels of a first phone call between Biden and King Salman late Thursday, when the White House made it clear that Biden had no intention of speaking with the 35-year-old crown prince.
The White House said Biden and the 85-year-old king emphasized the countries ‘security ties and “the United States’ commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory while facing attacks from groups aligned with Iran.”
Yet in a Trump era shift, Biden also “affirmed the importance the United States attaches to universal human rights and the rule of law.”
READ: US Says Khashoggi Report Will Help Generate ‘Accountability’
APPOINTMENT OF A FATAL CONSULATE
A veteran Saudi journalist and editor, Khashoggi was self-exiled and residing in the United States, writing articles critical of the crown prince when he was assassinated on October 2, 2018.
The Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States had told the writer to go to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul if he wanted to obtain documents for his upcoming marriage to a Turkish woman, Hatice Cengiz.
There, the 59-year-old man was killed and his body dismembered by a team sent from Riyadh under the direction of a senior adviser to Prince Mohammed, Saud al-Qahtani.
Just a month after the assassination, the US Central Intelligence Agency concluded with great confidence that Prince Mohammed had ordered the assassination, according to The Washington Post.
But determined to maintain strong relations with Riyadh, Trump refused to hold the Saudi strongman publicly accountable, even as the US government demanded that the perpetrators be punished.
The released intelligence report claims that the 15 people sent to attack Khashoggi in Turkey included members of Prince Mohammed’s “elite personal protection detachment”, the Rapid Intervention Force.
According to The Washington Post, US intelligence also discovered a phone call from Prince Mohammed to his brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, in which Prince Mohammed gave instructions to lure Khashoggi to Istanbul.
Another piece of evidence was a recording of the murder obtained by Turkish intelligence from inside the Istanbul consulate. This helped to identify the participants and showed the communications between them and Riyadh.
READ: Biden plans to ‘recalibrate’ Saudi relations: White House
READ: Saudi Arabia finally congratulates Biden on his victory
QUESTION OF JUSTICE
Few Saudi Arabian observers believe the assassination could have taken place without the knowledge of Prince Mohammed, a calculating strongman who has jailed several critics and locked up rival factions in the royal family.
Under heavy pressure from the United States and the international community, the Saudi government brought some of the perpetrators to justice.
The closed-door trial exonerated the two officials considered the masterminds: Qahtani, the royal court’s media adviser, and deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri. They are both part of Prince Mohammed’s inner circle.
Five unidentified defendants were sentenced to death and three others received harsh prison terms. Nine months later, the court withdrew the death sentences and replaced them with sentences of up to 20 years.
Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders called the case a “parody of justice.”
But it appeased the Trump administration, whose main action was to place 17 suspects in the case, including Qahtani but not Assiri, on its sanctions blacklist.
