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Washington (AP) - The Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation to capture or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018, according to estimates by the US secret services.
That emerges from a report published by the office of the new US intelligence coordinator Avril Haines in Washington.
Khashoggi was killed on October 2, 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a special command from Riyadh.
There is still no trace of his body to this day.
Khashoggi lived in the US state of Virginia and wrote columns for the Washington Post, which often contained criticism of the Saudi monarchy.
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According to the report, the US secret services based their assessment, among other things, on the fact that the Crown Prince had "absolute control over the security and intelligence organizations of the kingdom" since 2017.
It is therefore "highly unlikely" that government officials would have carried out an operation of this type without the permission of the Crown Prince.
The direct involvement of an important advisor to Bin Salman in the operation and his support for violent measures to silence dissidents abroad also speak in favor of such approval.
The new US President Joe Biden first called the Saudi King Salman on Thursday.
The White House said afterwards that Biden had told the king that he would work to "make bilateral relations as strong and transparent as possible".
The US President had reiterated the importance the US attached to human rights and the rule of law.
The notice made no mention of Khashoggi's killing.
After the disappearance of Khashoggi, the leadership of the Islamic-conservative kingdom was exposed to sharp criticism.
She only admitted the murder under international pressure.
The traces led to the closest circle of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who, however, denied having ordered the killing himself.
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In 2019, a UN human rights expert came to the conclusion that there was credible evidence of possible personal responsibility of the heir to the throne and other high-ranking representatives of Saudi Arabia.
A few weeks after the crime, the Washington Post reported that the US secret service had come to the conclusion with a high degree of certainty that the Crown Prince had ordered the killing.
Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, had made billions in arms deals with Riyadh.
The Republican was an important ally of the Crown Prince with a rather lax attitude towards the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.
Washington imposed sanctions on more than a dozen former Saudi government employees in connection with the murder of the journalist.
Trump stuck to his support for the royal family in Riyadh.
The government of Democrat Biden has made it clear that it will realign relations with Saudi Arabia.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Thursday: "Our government is focused on recalibrating the relationship."
During the election campaign, Biden had already promised a tougher course against Saudi Arabia and an end to US arms sales to the kingdom.
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According to US media reports, shortly after it took office last month, the new US administration suspended such sales pending a review.
In a move away from Trump’s strategy, Biden’s government has also announced that it will no longer support hostilities by the Saudi-led alliance against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Biden had already accused the crown prince during the election campaign of having ordered the killing of Khashoggis.
Riyadh would "pay a price" for it and become an "outsider", Biden said in November 2019.
The spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Ned Price, condemned the killing of Khashoggi as a "horrific crime" several times in the past few days.
Khashoggi had close ties with the Saudi royal family for a long time, but then fell out of favor.
In 2017 he went to the USA.
From exile, he repeatedly criticized the Saudi leadership, especially in columns for the Washington Post newspaper.
A trial of Khashoggi's murder is ongoing in Turkey.
A Saudi court sentenced five defendants to 20 years' imprisonment in the autumn, thus overturning the death penalty imposed on the five men at the end of last year.
Khashoggi's family had previously stated that they would forgive the perpetrators.
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Washington Post report on CIA findings, Nov 2018
Report from the intelligence coordinator