Saudi kingpin approved killing of Khashoggi: US

Ag AFP

WASHINGTON: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) approved an operation to capture or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, according to an intelligent report released here on Friday.

The report titled 'Assessing the Saudi Government's Role in the Killing of Jamal Khashoggi' and released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has been submitted to the Congress.

The report cited the crown prince's control of decision making in Saudi Arabia as well as involvement of a key advisor and members of his protective detail in the operation that murdered Khashoggi.

In a press statement, the ODNI said "the release of this assessment is consistent with the law and delivers on the Director of National Intelligence's commitment to submit an unclassified report to Congress. The assessment has been coordinated with the intelligence community and the information has been declassified to the greatest extent possible while still protecting the Intelligence community's critical source and methods." The assessment states that Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"Since 2017, the Crown Prince has had absolute control of the Kingdom's security and intelligence organizations, making it highly unlikely that Saudi officials would have carried out an operation of this nature without the Crown Prince's authorization," the report said.

The Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was a 59-year-old dissident and critical of the Saudi royal family. He entered a Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2, 2018 and was killed and dismembered there by a group of assassins.

"The Crown Prince viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the Kingdom and broadly supported using violent measures if necessary to silence him," the US report said, adding that "although Saudi officials had pre-planned an unspecified operation against Khashoggi, we do not know how far in advance Saudi officials decided to harm him."

In June 2019, a report investigated by the United Nations had also concluded that Khashoggi was the victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution, and an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia was responsible under the international human rights law.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden held a long-delayed first phone call Thursday with Saudi King Salman ahead of an imminent US intelligence report expected to link the Arab kingdom’s powerful crown prince to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi.

Biden kept the king waiting in his long list of calls to US allies after being sworn in five weeks ago.

And when he did finally reach out to the Saudis, it was pointedly to the king and not the expected successor Crown Prince MBS.

The Saudi state news agency said in its readout that the king and Biden stressed "the depth of the relationship between the two countries" and discussed Iran’s "destabilising activities and its support for terrorist groups" in the region.