Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accused dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi of being part of the Muslim Brotherhood during a phone call last month with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and White House national security adviser John Bolton.
The Washington Post reported that Bolton, who has urged the government to consider the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, did not indicate that he supported bin Salman’s assessment of Khashoggi.
The crown prince’s accusation that Khashoggi was a member of the group, which Saudi Arabia recognizes as a terrorist organization, came several days after Khashoggi disappeared on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
At the time of the phone call, the Saudi government had not publicly admitted that Khashoggi had been killed. The Saudi government first claimed that Khashoggi left the consulate unscathed, but has since claimed that there is evidence his death was “premeditated.”
The White House refused to comment on the conversations with Saudis, but said Kushner and the crown prince have had multiple conversations about Khashoggi, according to the Post. Kushner has sought to develop a relationship with the crown prince and visited him in October 2017.
Meanwhile, a Saudi official rejected that the crown prince made the statements to Bolton and Kushner. The official said that regular calls exist from “time to time” between the crown prince and U.S. officials, but said “no such commentary was conveyed.”
Khashoggi’s family has denied that he was affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Jamal Khashoggi was not a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. He denied such claims repeatedly over the past several years,” Khashoggi’s family said in a statement, according to the Post. “Jamal Khashoggi was not a dangerous person in any way possible. To claim otherwise would be ridiculous.”
“Although he sympathized with certain objectives of the Muslim Brotherhood, he also sharply disagreed with many of their positions, especially toward Saudi Arabia,” Khashoggi’s family added.
It was reported last month that the Saudi government had launched a campaign lasting for at least a year to persuade Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia. He had been presented several job offers, but had rejected them due to concern that he would be imprisoned or worse.
