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He praises his vision of modernizing Saudi Arabia by removing its economy from rapidly depleting oil reserves and introducing a more moderate Islam, a vision that Western leaders have hailed.
US officials have said privately that an operation to target Khashoggi could never have happened without the knowledge of the Crown Prince, the de facto head of government. The arrest of 18 men, some of whom belonged to bin Salman's restricted circle, can only argue that he did not know that it was more difficult to swallow. Bin Salman, in public comment in the aftermath of Khashoggi 's disappearance, claimed to know nothing of what had happened, claiming that Khashoggi had left the Istanbul consulate alive.
How a person involved in such a horrendous scandal could survive politically seems unfathomable. But the Khashoggi affair is only one of the many missteps in which the 33-year-old crown prince has mingled, and the extraordinary impunity he has enjoyed suggests that his position will not change. .
This is despite growing international pressure on the death of the journalist and the new threats of Saudi isolation.
Some of the biggest names in world trade and ministers from around the world, for example, have canceled plans to attend a conference on investing in the kingdom, nicknamed "Davos in the desert". The vision of the Crown Prince's economy in 2030 was going to be a central part of the event.
While US President Donald Trump has said he believes the Saudi version of the events – although he added that a US review of the investigation has not yet been completed – members Congress of the two sides are already pushing for sanctions to be imposed on Saudi officials.
But such pressures will probably not prevent the Crown Prince from taking the throne, said Neil Quilliam, who heads the Future Dynamics project in the Gulf of Chatham House think tank in London.
"There is a lot of international pressure, but that will not be enough to make him resign.The international community has no possibility of influencing King Salman to say" let your son down ", said Quilliam to CNN.
"At most, in private, his wings will actually be cut off, some of these more" adventurous "behaviors will be reduced, and that will be the kind of compromise that's achieved."
"We are beginning to understand what Trump really is – it is a transactional politician, and human rights issues are not really at the center of concern. was not for Trump, US-Saudi relations are not about to derail. "
Fiery foreign relations
The crown prince, known as the MBS, made an extraordinary start in Saudi politics, embarking on a series of highly publicized and risky moves to consolidate his rise and start remaking the kingdom in his own image.
Many of these movements have proliferated in other countries and have resulted in difficult external relations, forcing allies into uncomfortable recesses to justify their continued cooperation with the Saudis.
Bin Salman also led last year an aggressive land, air and sea blockade against Qatar, as part of what critics viewed as an attempt to broaden its regional influence.
Even Canada has not been spared by bin Salman's overbreadth. After officials in Ottawa have accused the kingdom of human rights violations and demanded the release of imprisoned activists, Saudi Arabia has frozen new trade and investment agreements, suspended his flights to Canada, reassigned students who were studying and expelled the Canadian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, while recalling his own.
But it is the treatment by the Crown Prince of Proxy War on the southern border of Saudi Arabia that is perhaps the most revealing. In his additional role as Defense Minister, bin Salman stepped up the country's assault on rebels in Yemen, as part of operations that also killed thousands of civilians.
Call for more answers
Although bin Salman's power in the kingdom may seem unshakeable, the Khashoggi affair could isolate the country just as it seeks to improve its relations with the world, primarily to attract foreign investment.
Western leaders are reluctant to name bin Salman in their calls for accountability, but voices of other political voices are stronger, especially in the United States, a key ally of the Saudis.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on Twitter: "To say that I am skeptical about the new Saudi story about Mr. Khashoggi is a euphemism," adding that it was "hard to find this last" explanation "as credible."
Robert Jordan, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told CNN's Anderson Cooper that there were "serious reservations" about bin Salman's leadership.
"If you look at the crown prince's history, he presided over failure after failure in the last two years: the war in Yemen, the detention of the Lebanese prime minister, the blockade of Qatar … you can fall the line and one would ask, if this guy applies for a job, which administration would hire him or give him a promotion?
"So, I think we have serious reservations about his ability to hold this position and in the long run, I think we need to have very frank conversations with the Saudis about how this will be handled."
Armida van Rij of the Policy Institute of King's College in London has pointed out the pressures that Saudi Arabian allies are currently experiencing in responding to the Khashoggi affair, saying that he should be s & # 39; 39, to act at a "decisive moment in relations between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia".
"At a time when the United Kingdom is reshaping its foreign policy and the role it would like to play on the world stage, and when it states that, in this role, it wishes to defending and maintaining order based on international rules, the UK risks reputational damage if it adopts a softer attitude about it than in the case of Russia after the Novichok attack ", she told CNN.
"This admission of the Saudi authorities should not hinder the rest of the investigation.There are still important issues to be resolved, such as who gave the order and who knew? What is it? happened to Khashoggi's body? "
