US intelligence report targets Saudi crown for murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

The Joe Biden administration plans to release a declassified U.S. intelligence report on Thursday in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved of murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018Four officials familiar with the matter told the news agency on Wednesday. Reuters.

The publication would represent the latest move by US President Joe Biden to realigning ties with Riyadh after years in which Washington largely gave its main Arab ally and top oil producer a free pass on his record of human rights violations, his intervention in the civil war in Yemen and other issues.

The report’s release is expected to coincide with the first telephone conversation, possibly this Wednesday, between the U.S. president and Saudi King Salman since Biden took over the presidency.

Biden takes US politics away from the warm relationship that former President Donald Trump’s White House had with the Crown Prince. The president is working to restore traditional contacts with Riyadh after four years under Trump.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that Biden would only have communications with the 85-year-old Saudi King and said the declassified report on Khashoggi was being prepared for publication and would be published soon.

Khashoggi, 59, Saudi journalist and columnist for the Washington post, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 and assassinated by a team of agents linked to the Crown Prince, the kingdom’s de facto ruler. Then they dismembered his body. His remains have never been found.

Riyadh ended up admitting that Khashoggi had been killed in a “rogue” extradition operation that had gone wrong, but denied any involvement of the crown prince. Five men sentenced to death for the murder had their sentences commuted to 20 years in prison after being pardoned by Khashoggi’s family.

Four US officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the declassified US intelligence report – in which the CIA was the main contributor – felt that the crown prince had approved and probably ordered the assassination of Khashoggi, who had used his column from the Washington post criticize the policies of the crown prince.

A classified version of the report was sent to the United States Congress in late 2018. In addition, a 2019 UN investigation concluded that it was “inconceivable” that the prince was not aware of the surgery.

But the Trump administration has rejected requests from lawmakers and human rights groups to release a declassified version, seeking to preserve cooperation amid mounting tensions with regional rival Iran, Riyadh, and to promote arms sales by states. United to the kingdom.

Biden pledged during the 2020 presidential campaign to reassess U.S.-Saudi ties in part because of Khashoggi’s assassination. Since taking office, he has halted sales of offensive weapons Riyadh could use in Yemen and has appointed a special envoy to advance diplomatic efforts to end the grueling civil war there.

A company linked to the crown

In addition to the American intelligence report, this Wednesday the channel CNN reported that the two planes used by the agents who killed Khashoggi to fly from Riyadh to Istanbul they belonged to a company recently seized by the Saudi crown, according to documents forming part of a civil lawsuit in Canadian courts.

Sky Prime Aviation was incorporated into the Public Investment Fund, chaired by the Crown Prince, in 2017 and a year later its planes were used in Khashoggi’s murder.

The information constitutes a new link between Mohammed Bin Salman and the death of Khashoggi and is part of a lawsuit in Canada brought by a group of Arab kingdom state-owned companies against former Saudi intelligence agent Saad Aljabri, who is in that country.

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