During a high-profile visit to the White House, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman faced intense scrutiny over the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The visit, marked by ceremonial pomp including cannon fire and a U.S. Air Force fly-past, was overshadowed by the unresolved controversy surrounding Khashoggi’s brutal murder. U.S. President Donald Trump, however, came to the defense of the crown prince during a joint press conference, dismissing the issue with a casual remark: “Things happen.”
Khashoggi, a former Middle East Eye journalist, was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and killed by Saudi agents in an operation that U.S. intelligence believes was approved by the crown prince. When questioned about the incident, Trump downplayed its significance, stating, “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about,” and asserting that the crown prince had no knowledge of the event. The crown prince himself described Khashoggi’s death as “painful” and claimed that Saudi Arabia had taken steps to prevent such incidents in the future.
The Biden administration, in a 2021 report, concluded that the crown prince had approved the order to “capture or kill” Khashoggi, a claim vehemently denied by Saudi officials. Middle East Eye had previously reported that seven of the 15 suspects involved in the operation were part of the crown prince’s personal security detail. The assassination, which took just seven minutes, involved horrific details, including Khashoggi being dragged, injected with a substance, and dismembered.
In 2019, a Saudi court sentenced five individuals to death and three others to prison for their roles in the killing, though the trial was widely criticized as a sham. Reports in 2021 revealed that some of the convicted individuals were living in luxury at a government-run security compound in Riyadh, rather than serving time in prison. The killing strained relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, though ties were eventually repaired in 2022. Ankara later transferred its own Khashoggi trial to Saudi Arabia, involving 26 suspects.
The Khashoggi case has also shed light on the existence of the “Tiger Squad,” a covert unit allegedly established by the crown prince to target Saudi dissidents both domestically and abroad. Despite the international outcry, the Saudi government has maintained its stance, and the crown prince continues to enjoy diplomatic support from key allies, including the United States.