The Biden government will release an intelligence report on Thursday that concludes that Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, according to three American officials familiar with the matter.
The intelligence assessment, based largely on the work of the CIA, is not new – NBC News was among the organizations that confirmed it in 2018. But its public launch will mark a significant new chapter in the US-Saudi Arabia relationship and a clear break. of President Joe Biden with former President Donald Trump’s policy of making a mistake about the role of the Saudi state in a brutal murder that has been widely condemned by members of Congress, journalists and a United Nations investigator.
Reuters reported for the first time on the declassified intelligence summary scheduled for launch on Thursday.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that Biden would communicate with the Saudi king, not his son, the crown prince. She said the declassified Khashoggi report was being prepared for release soon.
It remains to be seen how the launch will affect relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Biden officials have been involved with the Saudis since taking office, according to the State Department.
Khashoggi, 59, was a Saudi citizen who worked as a columnist for the Washington Post when he was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 and killed by a team of intelligence agents with close ties to the Crown Prince. His body was partially dismembered with a bone saw, American officials said, and the remains were never found.
After first denying the murder, the Saudi government changed course and said the journalist was accidentally killed while the team was trying to forcibly extradite him. The Saudis say the team acted on its own and that the Crown Prince was not involved.
Eight men were sentenced in a trial that international observers called a scam, and five were sentenced to death. His sentences were later commuted to 20 years after they were allegedly pardoned by Khashoggi’s relatives.
Agnes Callamard, who investigated the assassination for the United Nations, accused Saudi Arabia of “a deliberate and premeditated execution, an extrajudicial murder for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible under international human rights law”.
The CIA submitted its assessment to the White House in 2018, but it did not appear to change Trump’s friendly relations with Saudi Arabia and Bin Salman in particular.
Trump in 2019 boasted that he protected Bin Salman from Congressional scrutiny in recorded interviews with journalist Bob Woodward.
“I saved his ass,” said Trump. “I managed to get Congress to leave him alone. I managed to get them to stop.”
“Do you believe it was him?” Asked Woodward.
“No, he says it wasn’t him,” replied Trump.
During the 2020 election campaign, Biden promised to make the Saudis “pay the price and make them the outcasts they are”.
Biden ended American support for the Saudi Arabian war in Yemen, but did not act to cut military aid to an important Middle Eastern ally and counterterrorism partner.
“The president’s intention, as this government’s intention is, is to recalibrate our commitment to Saudi Arabia,” said Psaki on Wednesday.
