The United States publicly accused the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia on Friday of having "validated" the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, at the risk of a crisis between the two allied countries.
"We have come to the conclusion that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman has validated an operation to kill the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi," writes the National Intelligence Directorate.
The United States publicly accused the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia on Friday of having "validated" the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, at the risk of a crisis between the two allied countries.
"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 a short report from four pages, declassified at the request of President Joe Biden while his predecessor Donald Trump had kept it secret.
"Khashoggi, a threat to the kingdom"
"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 White House announced that "measures" would be unveiled in the wake, without further details.
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.
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 United States' commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory against attacks from pro-Iran groups", according to the American presidency.
Neither Washington nor Riyadh mentioned, in their report of this appeal, the potentially explosive declassified report for their bilateral relations.
Five Saudis sentenced to death and three sentenced to prison terms
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 the consulate of his country in Istanbul by a commando of agents from Arabia Arabia.
His body, dismembered on the spot, has never been found.
After denying the assassination, Ryad ended up saying that it had been committed by Saudi agents who acted alone.
After an opaque trial in Saudi Arabia, five Saudis were sentenced to death and three sentenced to prison terms - death sentences have since been commuted.
This affair has permanently tarnished the image of the young Crown Prince Mohammed ben Salman, says MBS, a real strongman of the kingdom quickly designated by Turkish officials as the sponsor of the murder despite Saudi denials.
The United States Senate, which had already had access to the conclusions of the American intelligence services, had also ruled in 2018 that the prince was "responsible" for the murder.
But Mike Pompeo, then Secretary of State to Donald Trump, told him that the CIA report contained "no direct element linking the crown prince to the order to kill Jamal Khashoggi".
The Trump Ryad alliance
And the former Republican president had never wanted to publish this report or publicly blame Mohammed ben Salman, to preserve the alliance with Riyadh, pillar of his anti-Iran strategy, the world's largest exporter of crude oil, and big buyer of American weapons.
The photos of Mike Pompeo, all smiles, alongside MBS had brought water to the mill of detractors of Trumpist diplomacy, accused of having covered the assassination.
"I saved his skin", also recognized, after the fact, the Republican billionaire with the American journalist Bob Woodward.
The Trump administration had issued sanctions against a dozen junior Saudi officials.
While it leaves the threat of new punitive measures, the Biden administration has not yet confirmed that it is ready to go so far as to sanction the prince.
The publication of the report "is an important step towards transparency, and transparency is, as often, an element in which those responsible are held to account," US diplomacy spokesman Ned Price said Thursday.
"This is a crime, as I have said before, which has shocked the conscience. We will soon be able to talk about measures to hold those responsible to account."
The US government has already warned that Joe Biden intends to "recalibrate" his relationship with Riyadh, by speaking only to the king and not to the prince, Donald Trump's privileged interlocutor, and by emphasizing human rights .
He also put an end to American support for the military coalition, led by the Saudis, which intervenes in the war in Yemen, and tries to resume the dialogue with Iran, great regional enemy of Saudi Arabia.