United States President Donald Trump has fiercely defended Mohammed bin Salman, insisting the Saudi crown prince did not know about the 2018 killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, effectively contradicting an assessment by US intelligence agencies.
The controversy over the killing and dismemberment of Khashoggi, a US-based critic of the Saudi leadership, flared again as the kingdom’s de facto ruler made his first White House visit in more than seven years on Wednesday, seeking to rehabilitate his global image tarnished by the incident.
The crown prince denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office with bin Salman sitting beside him.
“Things happened, but he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”
‘Huge mistake’
Bin Salman said it had been “painful” to hear about Khashoggi’s death but that his government “did all the right steps of investigation”.
“We’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. And it’s painful and it’s a huge mistake,” he told reporters.
Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, with US intelligence later concluding that Mohammed bin Salman had ordered his murder. Source: AAP / AP / Alamy
Trump also praised the crown prince for doing an “incredible” job on human rights, but did not elaborate.
Bin Salman has been strongly criticised by human rights groups not only for the Khashoggi killing but for his crackdown on dissent at home.
At the start of his visit, the crown prince was greeted with a lavish display of pomp and ceremony presided over by Trump on the South Lawn, complete with a military honour guard, a cannon salute and a flyover by US warplanes.
Trump pulled out all the stops for the Saudi prince, giving him treatment normally reserved for a state visit to the White House, even though he is not a head of state.
Trump greeted bin Salman with a smile and a handshake on the red carpet, while military personnel lined the perimeter. Source: AAP / Nathan Howard
The warm welcome for bin Salman in Washington is the latest sign that relations have recovered from the deep strain caused by Khashoggi’s murder
Salman promised on Wednesday to increase his country’s US investment to US$1 trillion ($1.53 trillion), up from the US$600 billion ($920 billion) pledge he made when Trump visited Saudi Arabia in May. But he offered no details or timetable.
Talks between the two leaders looked set to advance security ties, civil nuclear cooperation, and multibillion-dollar business deals with the kingdom.
Trump told reporters that the two countries had reached a “defence agreement,” without providing details, and that Saudi Arabia would buy advanced US-made F-35 fighter jets.
Trump said he got a “positive response” about the prospects for Saudi Arabia normalising ties with Israel. But the crown prince made clear that while he wanted to join the Abraham Accords, he was sticking to his condition that Israel must provide a path to Palestinian statehood, which it has refused to do.
The meeting underscores a key relationship — between the world’s biggest economy and the top oil exporter — that Trump has made a high priority in his second term as the international uproar around the killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, has gradually faded.
But the shadow of the journalist’s murder during Trump’s first term, which sparked global outrage and chilled relations between the US and Saudi Arabia for years, hung over the meeting.
Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, told CNN that her husband’s killing had “destroyed my life”.
“I hope they look at the American values of human rights and [democracy]” besides any deal and selling weapons, she said.
