Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has "validated" the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, US intelligence services said in a report released Friday (February 26th).
"We have come to the conclusion that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman has validated an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi," writes the National Intelligence Directorate in this short declassified document of four pages.
"The Crown Prince considered Khashoggi a threat to the kingdom and more broadly supported the use of violent measures if necessary to silence him," she added.
The Biden administration has said it will unveil new measures targeting Saudi Arabia after the report is released.
>> To read also: What we know a year after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
The report points out that the crown prince had had "absolute control" of the kingdom's intelligence and security services since 2017, "making it very unlikely that Saudi officials could have carried out such an operation without fire. Prince's green ".
The American intelligence services also suppose that, at the time of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, MBS created a climate such that his collaborators probably did not dare to question the orders received, "for fear of being fired. or arrested ".
President Biden, who ruled before his election in November that the Gulf kingdom should be treated as a "pariah" state over the affair, tried to clear the land by calling King Salman on the phone for the first time on Thursday. since arriving at the White House.
A first charge in 2018
If he emphasized "universal human rights" and "the rule of law", he also addressed the monarch with satisfaction for the recent release of several political prisoners.
And he spoke of "the commitment of the United States to help Saudi Arabia to defend its territory against attacks from pro-Iran groups", according to the American presidency.
>> To read also: Saudi Arabia: the Biden administration does not hide "its hostility vis-à-vis MBS"
In 2018, American elected officials and UN experts accused the prince of having ordered the assassination that took place in October of the same year.
The Saudi prince called MBS had dismissed the accusations, nevertheless assuming his responsibility as the de facto ruler of the kingdom.
Critic of Saudi power after being close to it, Jamal Khashoggi, resident in the United States and columnist for the daily Washington Post, was assassinated on October 2, 2018 in his country's consulate in Istanbul by a commando of agents from Arabia Arabia.
With AFP and Reuters
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