Saudi Arabia has pledged to hold the killers of Jamal Khashoggi accountable, according to the US Secretary of State. Mike Pompeo, who is currently traveling through the Middle East, met the Saudi King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh. Subsequently, Pompeo said that both had agreed that „accountability must take place“. The US and Saudi Arabia are still in the process of gathering the necessary facts about the journalist’s death.
Khashoggi was assassinated in early October in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul. According to official Saudi statements, then-vice secret service chief Ahmed al-Assiri and royal media consultant Saud al-Kahtani gave the order to kill him. Whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman actually knew nothing about it is controversial.
The US Senate had come to the conclusion in mid-December that the Crown Prince was responsible for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi. They appealed to a intelligence report that Mohammed bin Salman knew about the murder plans. The Senate thus opposed President Donald Trump, who refrains from criticizing Saudi Arabia, even praising the Crown Prince despite the killing of Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia has long been not only a strategic partner for Washington, but also an important client: 61 percent of the arms delivered to the Saudi army in the past decade came from the United States.
According to Pompeo, the US now expects that all those involved in the killing of Khashoggi must face trial. The leaders in Saudi Arabia are also determined, the minister said. In addition to the Khashoggi case, he also raised human rights issues in Riyadh, according to Pompeo.
