The crown prince of Saudi Arabia is making an official visit to the White House where, among other things, President Donald Trump said that Saudi Arabia had agreed to invest $600 billion in the United States, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman promising to increase the investment to $1 billion.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Mohammed bin Salman knew nothing about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, offering a strong defense for the visiting Saudi crown prince that contradicted the assessment of US intelligence agencies.
The debate over the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and US-based critic of the Saudi leadership, returned to the Oval Office in front of the cameras as the kingdom's de facto ruler made his first visit to the White House in more than seven years, seeking to further rehabilitate his global image damaged by the incident.
Later, Trump announced that he was designating Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, and the two sides announced agreements on arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence, and minerals.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that bin Salman approved the capture or killing of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The crown prince denied ordering the operation but accepted responsibility as the kingdom's de facto ruler.
“A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman you’re talking about, whether you like him or not,” Trump told reporters, with bin Salman sitting next to him. “Something happened, but he didn’t know anything about it, and we can leave it at that.”
Bin Salman said it had been “painful” to hear about Khashoggi’s death, but that his government had “taken all the appropriate investigative steps.” “We have improved our system to make sure nothing like this happens. And it is painful and a big mistake,” he told reporters.
Trump, who rebuked the journalist who asked the question about Khashoggi "for embarrassing our guest," also praised the crown prince for his "extraordinary" work on human rights, but did not provide details.
Following the White House reception, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attended an official state dinner at the White House, where he was joined by world-renowned figures including Elon Musk, Cristiano Ronaldo and Tim Cook, in an event that highlighted the depth of bilateral relations and the Kingdom's growing global influence.
