JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi officials indicated Saturday they were keen to move on from the
killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, one day after US President Joe Biden
raised it in his talks with
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
اضافة اعلان
Tensions between
the two men had been high ahead of their first meeting, especially after Biden’s
administration last year released an assessment by the intelligence community
that Prince Mohammed “approved” the operation that led to Khashoggi’s killing
and dismemberment in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.
In remarks Friday
night, Biden called
Khashoggi’s death “outrageous” and said he had warned
Prince Mohammed against further attacks on dissidents, without specifying what
actions he might take.
The Al-Arabiya
channel quoted a Saudi official saying the pair “addressed the issue of Jamal
Khashoggi quickly” and that Prince Mohammed “confirmed that what happened is
regrettable and we have taken all legal measures to prevent” a recurrence.
Prince Mohammed
also pointed out that “such an incident occurs anywhere in the world”,
highlighting “a number of mistakes” made by Washington such as torturing
detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Al-Arabiya reported.
In an interview
with CNN, Adel Al-Jubeir, minister of state for foreign affairs, cast doubt on
the intelligence community’s determination that Prince Mohammed ordered the
2018 operation, something Prince Mohammed has denied.
“We know what the
intelligence community’s assessment was with regard to Saddam Hussein having
weapons of mass destruction,” Jubeir shot back in an exchange with Wolf Blitzer
shared widely on Saudi social media.
Accusations that
the Iraqi dictator had such weapons trigged the 2003 Iraq War. None were found.
‘Double standards’
Jubeir also made clear the kingdom believed the Khashoggi affair had been
sufficiently dealt with, even though Khashoggi’s remains have never been found.
A Saudi court in
2020 jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years over the killing. Their
names were never released, and Khashoggi’s fiancée branded the ruling a
“farce”.
“The Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia investigated this crime. The Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia held those
responsible for it accountable, and they are paying the price of the crime they
committed as we speak,” Jubeir said.
“We investigated,
we punished, and we put in place procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen
again. This is what countries do in situations like this.”
Despite lingering
discord over the Khashoggi affair, the meeting between Prince Mohammed and
Biden “went well with a frank exchange of opinions,” Ali Shihabi, a Saudi
analyst, told AFP.
Prince Mohammed
“responded to Biden, pointing out US double standards of making a huge noise
about Khashoggi (a Saudi) while trying their best to downplay the assassination
of
Shireen Abu Akleh even though she is a US citizen,” Shihabi said, referring
to the Palestinian-American journalist shot dead by Israeli occupation forces
in May while covering an Israeli raid in the West Bank.
“But beyond that frank exchange the meeting was very cordial
and important to put the bad blood created by Biden’s statement behind them,”
he said.
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