WASHINGTON (AP) – The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia probably approved the assassination of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, according to a U.S. intelligence report released Friday recently. The finding could increase pressure on the Biden administration to hold the Kingdom responsible for an assassination that sparked widespread outrage in the United States and abroad.
The public guilt of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was an extraordinary reproach and is likely to set the tone for the new administration’s relationship with a country that President Joe Biden has criticized, but which the White House also considers in some contexts as to strategic partner.
The conclusion that the prince approved an operation to kill or capture Khashoggi, a critic of his authoritarian consolidation of power, was based on what intelligence officers know about his role in decision-making within the kingdom. , as well as the involvement of one of its key advisors, Saud al-Qahtani, and members of its protective detail, according to the report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Officials also noted the prince’s past support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, according to the report.
While Democrats in Congress called for aggressive action, the State Department responded by announcing visa restrictions on 76 Saudi people involved in the threat of dissidents abroad.
“As a matter of security for everyone on our borders, perpetrators addressing dissidents perceived on behalf of no foreign government should not be allowed to enter U.S. territory,” the secretary of state said. Anthony Blinken.
The declassified document was released a day after a later-than-usual courtesy call from Biden to Saudi King Salman, although a summary of the White House conversation made no mention of the assassination and, instead, he said men had debated the long collaboration of countries. . Similarly, the Kingdom’s Saudi Press Agency did not mention Khashoggi’s assassination in its report on the call, but focused on regional issues such as Iran and the ongoing war in Yemen.
The softer tone of the call contrasts with Biden’s promise as a candidate to make Saudi Arabia “an outcast” for the assassination.
Once in office, Biden has said he will maintain any scale of relations with Saudi Arabia that U.S. interests require. He also ordered an end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen and said it would stop the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia. He has given her few details of what weapons and support he meant.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday that the administration has made it clear that it will “recalibrate our relationship” with Saudi Arabia.
Democrats, for their part, pressed for strong action.
Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, urged the Biden administration to ensure that the report leads to “serious repercussions against all responsible parties it has identified and that it also re-evaluates the our relationship with Saudi Arabia. ” And Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the Oregon Committee on Intelligence and Democrats, called for consequences for the prince (such as sanctions) as well as for the Saudi kingdom as a whole.
Khashoggi had gone to the Saudi consulate to collect the documents needed for his wedding. Once inside, he died at the hands of a dozen Saudi security and intelligence officials and others who had gathered before his arrival. Surveillance cameras had tracked his route and those of his alleged killers in Istanbul in the hours leading up to his murder.
A Turkish insect planted at the consulate reportedly captured the sound of a forensic saw, operated by a Saudi colonel who was also a forensic expert, dismembering Khashoggi’s body within an hour of entering the building. . The whereabouts of his remains are unknown.
The prince said in 2019 that he took “all the responsibility” for the murder since it happened to his watch, but refused to order it. Saudi officials have said the assassination of Khashoggi was the work of Saudi security and intelligence officials. Saudi courts announced last year that they had sentenced eight Saudi citizens to prison for Khashoggi’s murder. They were not identified.
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Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer in Oklahoma City and Aamer Madhani in Chicago contributed to this report.