US report on Khashoggi killing likely to worsen Saudi relations

Crown prince to be ID’d as mastermind of execution

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is expected to release an unclassified intelligence report as soon as Thursday establishing that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, directed the killing of the dissident U.S.based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A classified version of the report was completed shortly after Khashoggi was lured into a Saudi consulate in Turkey and killed by a team of assassins on Oct. 2, 2018. But the Trump administration bottled up the findings, reflecting the former president’s embrace of the up-andcoming crown prince as the presumptive heir to the kingdom’s throne even after Khashoggi’s brutal slaying.

The decision to release the report comes as President Biden moves to reshape the relationship between Washington and Riyadh in ways that will inevitably strain it. Biden also is slashing U.S. support for the Saudi bombing campaign in Yemen, which has caused devastating civilian casualties, and attempting to resuscitate the Iran nuclear agreement.

Khashoggi, who had been living in the United States and writing for the Washington Post’s opinion section, was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain paperwork he needed to remarry. Once inside, he was killed and dismembered. His remains have never been recovered, and a United Nations report released in 2019 said the murder had been carefully planned.

Riyadh first falsely claimed that Khashoggi had left the consulate, but later admitted that he had been killed. However, the crown prince, commonly known by his initials MBS, never acknowledged ordering the assassination.

Biden said Wednesday that he had read the report, although he did not comment further. The president has not spoken to Saudi King Salman, the father of the crown prince, since taking office, and has pointedly declined to speak with the son, though MBS is widely seen as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.

During four years under Trump, the United States treated the Saudis with kid gloves. Trump fawned over the royal leaders; his relationship and that of his son-in-law Jared Kushner with MBS were especially friendly.

Trump ignored the outcry over Khashoggi’s murder to push through arms sales to Saudi Arabia in defiance of Congress.