Insiders say Saudi prince blasted Khashoggi in call
WASHINGTON — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman described slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a dangerous Islamist days after his disappearance in a phone call with President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and national security adviser John Bolton, according to people familiar with the discussion.
In the call, which occurred before the kingdom publicly acknowledged killing Khashoggi, the prince urged Kushner and Bolton to preserve the U.S.Saudi alliance and said the journalist was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group long opposed by Bolton and other senior Trump officials.
The attempt to criticize Khashoggi in private stands in contrast to the Saudi government’s later public statements decrying the journalist’s death as a “terrible mistake” and a “terrible tragedy.”
“The incident that happened is very painful, for all Saudis,” the prince, the kingdom’s de facto leader, said last week. “The incident is not justifiable.”
The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Khalid bin Salman, described Khashoggi last month as a “friend” who dedicated “a great portion of his life to serve his country.”
In a statement released to The Washington Post, Khashoggi’s family called the characterization of the columnist as a dangerous Islamist inaccurate.
“Jamal Khashoggi was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He denied such claims repeatedly over the past several years,” the family said. “Jamal Khashoggi was not a dangerous person in any way possible. To claim otherwise Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly accused Jamal Khashoggi of being in the Muslim Brotherhood. would be ridiculous.”
A person familiar with the discussion said Bolton did not signal he endorsed the prince’s characterization of Khashoggi during the call.
A Saudi official denied the prince made the allegations, saying “routine calls do exist from time to time” with top U.S. officials, but “no such commentary was conveyed.”
Saudi Arabia has faced international condemnation for its shifting accounts of Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 disappearance at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. The kingdominitially said Khashoggi walked out of the consulate unharmed, then announced that Saudi agents killed him in a fistfight and more recently said it had evidence that his killing was “premeditated.”
Analysts said the prince’s efforts to discredit Khashoggi in private suggested a two-faced attempt at damage control.
“This is character assassination added to premeditated murder,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official and scholar at the Brookings Institution.
The White House declined to say how many phone calls the crown prince and Kushner have had since Khashoggi’s disappearance. The two men have had multiple discussions, according to people familiar with the matter.
Other Middle East leaders have also come to the crown prince’s defense.
In recent days, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah elSissi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reached out to senior officials in the Trump administration to express support for the prince, arguing that he is an important strategic partner in the region, said people familiar with the calls.
Israel, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have united behind the Trump administration’s efforts to bring pressure on Iran and force through a Middle East peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.
Other U.S. allies, notably Germany, Britain and France, have expressed serious concern about the killing of a man who wrote articles critical of the Saudi leadership in The Washington Post.
In response to the killing, the Trump administration has revoked the visas or made travel ineligible for 21 Saudi nationals implicated by Turkey and Saudi Arabia in Khashoggi’s death.