"Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince, had nothing to do with the murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, whose assassination in 2018 left the Saudi leader an international pariah. But Trump's own intelligence services, as well as a 2019 UN investigation, have painted a very different picture. The assassination took place inside a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where a 15-person team led by a close associate of Prince Mohammed was said to have drugged, murdered and dismembered Khashoggi in order to hide evidence of the crime."
"Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen, Trump said when asked about the killing by a reporter during an Oval Office appearance with Prince Mohammed on Tuesday. But [Prince Mohammed] knew nothing about it, continued Trump. And we can leave it at that. You don't have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that. That is not what the US Office of the director of national intelligence concluded in 2021, when a report by the agency laid the blame for Khashoggi's death directly on Prince Mohammed, who on Tuesday made his first visit to the US since the assassination."
"We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the 2021 report read. The crown prince denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom's de facto ruler. The motive for Khashoggi's murder was clear: the journalist was a leading critic of Prince Mohammed, who had amassed power under his now-deceased father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, whom he sought to succeed."
Donald Trump publicly asserted that Mohammed bin Salman had nothing to do with Jamal Khashoggi's 2018 murder and rebuked a reporter for asking about it. US intelligence and a 2019 UN investigation reached contrary conclusions, reporting the killing occurred inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a 15-person team allegedly tied to Prince Mohammed. A 2021 US intelligence report concluded the crown prince approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi. The crown prince denied ordering the operation but accepted responsibility as de facto ruler. Khashoggi's criticism of Prince Mohammed provided an apparent motive.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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