Jamal Khashoggi: The Saudi Crown Prince has described the murdered journalist as a dangerous Islamist during a call to the White House

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman described the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a dangerous Islamist, after his disappearance, during a phone call with President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and National Security Advisor John Bolton, according to people close to the discussion.

In this call, which took place before the kingdom publicly acknowledged the murder of Khashoggi, the Crown Prince urged Kushner and Bolton to preserve the US-Saudi alliance. officials.

The attempt to criticize Khashoggi in private contrasts with later public statements by the Saudi government that the journalist's death would be decried as a "terrible mistake" and a "terrible tragedy".

"The incident that happened is very painful for all the Saudis," said the crown prince, the de facto head of the kingdom, at a round table held last week. "The incident is not justifiable."

The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Khalid bin Salman, described Khashoggi last month as a "friend" who devoted "a large part of his life to serving his country".

In a statement published in the Washington Post, Khashoggi's family described the description of the Islamist columnist as dangerous and inaccurate.

"Jamal Khashoggi was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He has denied such requests on several occasions in recent years, "said the family. "Jamal Khashoggi was by no means a dangerous person. To claim the opposite would be ridiculous.

A person familiar with the discussion stated that Bolton did not indicate that he subscribed to the characterization of Khashoggi by the Crown Prince during the appeal.

A Saudi official on Wednesday denied that the Crown Prince had made the allegations, saying "routine appeals exist from time to time" with the young leader and the top US officials, but "no such commentary is going on." has been transmitted ".

Saudi Arabia faces international condemnation due to a change in its accounts regarding Khashoggi's disappearance on October 2 at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The kingdom initially stated that Khashoggi had left the consulate unscathed, then announced that Saudi agents had accidentally killed him during a fight, and more recently that he had evidence that his assassination had been "premeditated".

According to analysts, the Crown Prince's efforts to discredit Khashoggi privately suggest a double attempt to limit the damage. "It's a character assassination coupled with premeditated murder," said Bruce Riedel, former CIA and academic leader at the Brookings Institution.

The White House refused to discuss delicate conversations with the Saudis or to say how many times the Crown Prince and Kushner had made phone calls since Khashoggi's disappearance. The two men had multiple discussions, according to people familiar with the subject.

Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject.

[Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman is ‘chief of the tribe’ in a cowed House of Saud]

Other leaders of the Middle East have also defended the Crown Prince. In recent days, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have addressed senior officials of the Trump administration to express their support for the Crown Prince, claiming he was a partner strategic importance in the region, said people close to the calls.

Israel, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have joined forces with the Trump government's efforts to pressure Iran and impose a Middle East peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

Other allies in the United States, including Germany, Britain and France, have expressed serious concern over the murder of a man who wrote articles criticizing Saudi leaders in the Washington Post.

In response to the killing, the Trump administration canceled visas or rendered trips ineligible for 21 Saudi nationals implicated by Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the death of Khashoggi.

As US authorities consider a more energetic response, Kushner stressed the importance of the US-Saudi alliance in the region, said people familiar with the conversations. Other State Department and Pentagon officials, however, have stated that the options for the study could include clear Saudi Arabian government discipline, the lifting of the Qatar blockade by the Saudi government and the end. of the war in Yemen. Officials warned that no decision had been made and Trump expressed little desire to significantly alter relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, but there is an interest in a full review of potential options.

Kushner's efforts to carefully maintain a relationship with the heir to the Saudi throne make him a decisive spokesperson in the Trump administration's decision. After several private discussions early in the administration, Kushner defended Muhammad as a reformer ready to usher in the ultra-conservative and oil-rich monarchy in modernity. For months, Kushner privately claimed that Muhammad would play a key role in shaping a Middle East peace plan and that, with the prince's blessing, much of the Arab world would follow.

It was Kushner who pushed his father-in-law to make his first trip abroad to Riyadh, against the objections of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the warnings of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. At the beginning of the administration, Kushner often preferred to speak to the Crown Prince in private, but now coordinates his conversations with the National Security Council.

Kushner visited the Crown Prince of his palace on a secret trip in October 2017. This plan was held so close that he surprised some White House employees and intelligence services.

The two men in their thirties spent the evening talking alone about the prospects of Kushner's peace plan for the Middle East. A few days later, the prince ordered the house arrest of dozens of rival royals and the imprisonment of other enemies in order to strengthen his control of the government. The White House and the Saudis denied that Kushner approved the coup.

The Saudi authorities have not concealed their antipathy towards Khashoggi, especially by expressing their consternation last year, when he began writing a regular column for The Post. In the days following his disappearance on October 2 – before the Saudis acknowledged his death in Istanbul – a person close to the royal palace said that Mohammed was intrigued by the great concern about Khashoggi, that he considered to be part of the Muslim Brotherhood. an agent from Qatar.

Khashoggi's family said Jamal's views were much more nuanced than those described by the Saudi authorities. "Although he understands some of the objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, he also strongly disagrees with many of their positions, particularly vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia," said the family in his statement.

Saudi Arabia broke relations with Qatar last year, accusing it of housing "terrorists" of the Muslim Brotherhood. Although the Saudis maintained cordial relations with the Brothers, having been founded in Egypt as a political and social Islamist movement, Riyadh declared it a terrorist organization after the Arab Spring uprisings.

Many Republican lawmakers and Middle East analysts on the right have subscribed to the assessment made by Saudi Arabia. In 2015, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then a member of the House of Commons, co-sponsored a resolution inviting the state department to designate the Muslim. Brotherhood a terrorist organization. During Trump's election campaign, a number of important supporters, including Bolton, called for the designation.

Sissi, whose military government toppled a government elected in 2011, allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Israeli political right share this view.

Trump contemplated such an action at the beginning of his administration, but was dissuaded by Pompeo, become director of the CIA, and other members of the administration. They noted that if the designation would please some Arab partners, others in the region would reject it. The Brotherhood has a dominant political stature and legitimacy in Jordan, Turkey and Morocco, among other countries.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a rival of the Saudi Crown Prince, has called for Saudi Arabia to be held responsible for the murder. Erdogan called Trump on Thursday morning to discuss the Khashoggi investigation, according to people close to the conversation.

Karen DeYoung and Tom Hamburger contributed to this article.