US officials are putting sustained pressure on Mohammed bin Salman to blame one of his favoured generals – the deputy head of Saudi intelligence – for the presumed death of Jamal Khashoggi, a move the*Trump administration*believes could allow both Washington and Riyadh a way out of the escalating crisis.
General Ahmed al-Assiri is one of the embattled crown prince’s most trusted security officials, a senior air force officer who was the Saudi face of the Yemen war for more than a year before being thrust into the intelligence role. He is entrusted with the most sensitive state secrets and if, as is widely alleged, the kingdom was responsible for Khashoggi’s disappearance, would have have almost certainly been a party to plans.
Officials in Washington have suggested for the past three days that a senior figure in Riyadh was central to the apparent plot to lure Khashoggi into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, where he is believed to have been tortured and killed by state security officials. Their insistence, however, has been met with blanket denials by Prince Mohammed, who continues to eschew any Saudi link to a disappearance that has become the most significant foreign policy crisis of Trump’s presidency, and battered the kingdom’s global reputation.
