Saudi king stands by prince amid criticism

King Salman of Saudi Arabia stood by his son and crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Monday, avoiding any mention of the international outrage toward the kingdom in his first public remarks since Saudi agents killed the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month.

The echoes of that killing continue to spread, with Germany sanctioning18 Saudis suspected of involvement and freezing arms exports to Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Khashoggi’s killing inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul has become a lightning rod for western criticism of Saudi Arabia, its human rights record and the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s day-to-day ruler.

A growing chorus of current and former western officials have concluded that an operation as elaborate as the one to kill Khashoggi could not have been carried out without the prince’s knowledge, and U.S. officials told the New York Times and other publications last week that the CIA had concluded the prince had ordered the killing.

Saudi officials have vehemently denied that the crown prince had any involvement in the death of Khashoggi, a Virginia resident who wrote columns for the Washington Post that were critical of some Saudi policies. They have portrayed the killing as a result of a rogue operation to return Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia.