President Joe Biden’s administration has released a long-secret U.S. assessment that accused a top member of the Saudi royal family of killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the report, which was released Friday, said.
The report said its assessment was based “on the Crown Prince’s control of decision making in the Kingdom since 2017, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman’s protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including 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 was issued by the office of the director of National Intelligence.
On Friday, Thompson Reuters reported the Biden administration may limit future U.S. overseas military sales to the Saudis to “defensive” weapons. The White House has already temporarily suspended half a billion dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
“At the time of the Khashoggi murder, the Crown Prince probably fostered an environment in which aides were afraid that failure to complete assigned tasks might result in him firing or arresting them. This suggests that the aides were unlikely to question Muhammad bin Salman's orders or undertake sensitive actions without his consent."
Biden spoke to Saudi King Salman on Thursday for the first time since taking office more than a month ago. It was a later-than-usual courtesy call to the Middle East ally, timing seen as reflecting Biden’s displeasure.
The conversation was overshadowed by the imminent release of findings on whether the king’s son approved the Oct. 2, 2018, killing of Khashoggi, a critic of the crown prince’s authoritarian consolidation of power, inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in 2018 that the prince likely ordered the killing, a finding reported by news media but never officially released.
The White House said Biden on Thursday discussed with King Salman the two countries’ “longstanding partnership” and welcomed the kingdom’s recent releases of an advocate for women’s rights and some of its other political detainees.
The language came in contrast to Biden’s pledge as a candidate to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah” over the killing. The White House offered no immediate explanation for his milder tone with the king.
The kingdom’s state-run Saudi Press Agency similarly did not mention Khashoggi’s killing in a report about the call between Biden and King Salman, instead focusing on regional issues such as Iran and the ongoing war in Yemen.
The king and Biden stressed “the depth of the relationship between the two countries and the importance of strengthening the partnership between them to serve their interests and achieve security and stability in the region and the world,” the report said.
The killing drew bipartisan outrage. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said Thursday he hopes Biden talks to the king “very straight about it, and very emphatically, and says that this is not acceptable.” Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said he understood the administration to be considering new sanctions to accompany release of the report. “So it’s a day of reckoning but one that’s long overdue.”
Critics blame Mohammed bin Salman for the kingdom’s imprisonment and alleged torture of peaceful rights advocates, businesspeople and other royals at home and for launching a devastating war in neighboring Yemen and a failed economic blockade against neighboring Qatar, among other actions.
Mohammed bin Salman has consolidated power rapidly since his father, Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, in his 80s, became king in 2015. Salman is one of the last living sons of modern Saudi Arabia’s original founder.
Given his age and Saudi royals’ longevity, the prince could rule for the next half-century, if he follows his aging father to the throne.
U.S. intelligence findings are coming out more than two years after Khashoggi walked hand-in-hand with his fiancée to the Saudi consulate in Turkey. He planned to pick up documents for their wedding. The errand was recorded by surveillance cameras that tracked his route and those of his alleged killers in Istanbul in the hours leading up to his killing.
Inside the consulate, Khashoggi died at the hands of more than a dozen Saudi security and intelligence officials and others who had assembled ahead of his arrival.
A Turkish bug planted at the embassy reportedly captured the sound of a forensic saw, operated by a Saudi military colonel who was also a forensics expert, dismembering Khashoggi’s body within an hour of his entering the building. The whereabouts of his remains remain unknown.
Once in office, Biden said he would maintain whatever scale of relations with Saudi Arabia that U.S. interests required. He also ordered an end to U.S. support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen and said he would stop the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia. He’s given few details of what weapons and support he meant.
Asked how the release of the findings would affect Biden’s approach toward Saudi Arabia, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that a range of options was on the table.
“There are areas where we will express concerns and leave open the option of accountability,” Psaki said. “There are also areas where we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia, given the threats they face in the region.”
Saudi Arabian courts last year announced they had sentenced eight Saudi nationals to prison in Khashoggi’s killing. They were not identified.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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