Trump and Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince. Photographer: Nathan Howard/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Dear Commons Community,
Trump said yesterday that Mohammed bin Salman knew nothing about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, offering a fierce defense of the visiting Saudi crown prince that contradicted a U.S. intelligence assessment. As reported by the HuffPost and other media.
The controversy over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and U.S.-based critic of the Saudi leadership, flared again in the Oval Office in front of cameras as the kingdom’s de facto ruler made his first White House visit in more than seven years, seeking to further rehabilitate his global image tarnished by the incident.
Trump later announced that he was designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, and the two sides announced agreements on arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence and critical minerals.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that bin Salman approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The crown prince denied ordering the operation but acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him,” Trump told reporters, with bin Salman sitting beside him. “Things happened, but he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”
Bin Salman said it had been “painful” to hear about Khashoggi’s death but that his government “did all the right steps of investigation.” “We’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. And it’s painful and it’s a huge mistake,” he told reporters.
Trump, who chided the reporter who asked the Khashoggi question “to embarrass our guest,” also praised the crown prince for doing an “incredible” job on human rights, but did not elaborate.
Trump’s treatment of bin Salman prompted a rebuke from Khashoggi’s widow. “Nothing (can) justify just a horrible crime … because he’s controversial or he’s unliked by someone,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi told Reuters in an interview, adding that she wished Trump would meet with her so she could introduce him to the “real Jamal.”
Bin Salman has been strongly criticized by human rights groups not only for the Khashoggi killing but for his crackdown on dissent at home. But the crown prince has also unleashed major social reforms that have swept away some austere social codes.
The meeting underscores a key relationship – between the world’s biggest economy and the top oil exporter – that Trump has made a high priority in his second term as the international uproar around the killing of Khashoggi has gradually faded.
The warm welcome for bin Salman in Washington marks a high point for U.S.-Saudi ties, which have suffered because of Khashoggi’s murder. Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden traveled to the kingdom and met with the Saudi prince but he stopped short of hosting him at the White House.
Mohammed bin Salman is a despicable individual and should not be honored in our White House!
Tony
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