Murder of Khashoggi: Washington accuses the Saudi prince MBS

The United States publicly accused, on Friday, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia of having "validated" the assassination of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and punished some of his relatives, without going so far as to punish the powerful leader, in the hope of avoiding a "rupture" with this key ally.

Jamal Khashoggi, AFP

Ryad "totally rejected the false and prejudicial conclusions" of the report of the American intelligence services, while calling for the continuation of a "strong and solid" partnership with Washington.

"The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed ben Salman validated an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi," wrote U.S. intelligence in this four-page document, declassified at the request of President Joe Biden, while his predecessor Donald Trump had kept it secret.

The report points out that the young leader, nicknamed MBS, had "absolute control" over the intelligence and security services, "making it very unlikely" that such an operation would take place without his "green light".

It contains a list of about twenty people involved in the operation, including the former number two of Saudi intelligence Ahmed al-Assiri, a close associate of MBS, and the former adviser to Prince Saud al-Qahtani, both of whom have been cleared by their country's justice system.

Calls to sanction MBS

The U.S. government subsequently announced financial sanctions against General Assiri and against the Quick Reaction Force, an elite unit charged with protecting the prince, supervised by Saud al-Qahtani and presented by Washington as being largely implicated in the murder.

The head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken, for his part, banned 76 Saudis from entering the United States under a new rule, called "Khashoggi ban," or "Khashoggi ban," targeting anyone accused of attacking dissidents or journalists abroad on behalf of his country's authorities.

Although directly implicated, Mohammed ben Salmane was not among those sanctioned.

"The United States does not generally impose sanctions on the highest leaders of countries with which it maintains diplomatic relations," the State Department said.

President Biden wants to "recalibrate" relations with Riyadh: he has indicated that he will speak personally only with King Salman and not with his son, Donald Trump's privileged interlocutor, he has emphasized human rights, and he has stopped American support for the military coalition, led by the Saudis, which is intervening in the war in Yemen. 

But he doesn't want an open crisis.

"The relationship with Saudi Arabia is important," Blinken said. The measures announced, "it is really not to have a break in the relationship, but to recalibrate it," he pleaded.

National Intelligence Director Avril Haines agreed and said the decision to publish the report "would not make things easier", but that it was not "unexpected".

"Obviously, it's going to be tricky on a number of things," she told NPR radio Friday night, adding: "We hope to continue working where it makes sense to work and continue to communicate.

Several personalities, especially on the left, deplored this caution.

"I hope this is only a first step, and that the government will take concrete steps to hold the Crown Prince personally accountable for this heinous crime," said Democratic Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Summary Executions, Agnès Callamard, also considered that Washington should sanction MBS.

Especially since Joe Biden had judged, before his election in November, that the Gulf Kingdom should be treated as a "pariah" state in this case and that those responsible for the murder should "pay the consequences".

But as president, he tried to clear the land of mines by calling King Salmane on Thursday.

While he emphasized "universal human rights", he also expressed his satisfaction to the monarch for the recent release of several political prisoners. And he promised to help Ryad "defend" itself against attacks by pro-Iran groups.

Critic of Saudi power after having been close to it, Jamal Khashoggi, resident in the United States and columnist for the Washington Post daily newspaper, was assassinated on October 2, 2018 in the consulate of his country in Istanbul by a commando of agents from Saudi Arabia.

His body, dismembered, was never found.

After denying the assassination, Riyadh finally said that it was committed by Saudi agents acting alone. After an opaque trial in Saudi Arabia, five Saudis were sentenced to death and three others to prison - the death sentences have since been commuted.

The case tarnished the image of the young Crown Prince, a true strongman of the kingdom who was quickly identified by Turkish officials as the instigator of the murder, despite Saudi denials.

The United States Senate, which had already had access to the conclusions of American intelligence, had also judged as early as 2018 that the prince was "responsible" for the murder.

But Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump's Secretary of State at the time, had told him that the CIA report contained "no direct element linking the Crown Prince to the order to kill Jamal Khashoggi".

And the former Republican president had never wanted to publish this report or publicly blame Mohammed ben Salmane, in order to preserve the alliance with Ryad, the pillar of his anti-Iran strategy, the world's leading exporter of crude oil and a major buyer of American arms.

"I saved his skin," the Republican billionaire admitted, after the fact, to the American journalist Bob Woodward.

Source: AFP