US secret plan presented by Pompeo to save Mohammed bin Salman from Khashoggi’s death

A Saudi source told the British “Middle East Eye” website that the King of Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince are protecting themselves from the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by following a road map developed by the US Secretary of State.

The source familiar with the talks with Saudi leaders said that the US foreign minister handed over the plan to the Saudis himself during a meeting with King Salman and his son, the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, last month in Riyadh.

The source said the plan presented by the United States includes an option to accuse some member in the Saudi royal family with the killing of Khashoggi to avoid overthrowing the heads of Kingm his son and some of their authority figures.

The source said that the person was not yet selected, and that the Saudi leaders postpone the use of this plan in case of escalating pressure on Mohammed bin Salman to the maximum extent.

“We will not be surprised if this happens”, the source told the British website.

The source said the remaining step was to pin the crime on a member of the royal family and would be taken if the arrests of Saudi suspects did not ease pressure on Riyadh.

For its part, the State Department denied the allegations quoted source, describing it as “a complete distortion of the Foreign Minister’s diplomatic mission to Saudi Arabia”.

“We have publicly stated our objectives: to assure the Saudi leadership of the importance that the US government attaches to the full and immediate accountability of the perpetrators of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi”, US State Department spokesman Heather Nauert said.

According to the source, Pompeo laid out the outline of his plan on October 16, when he traveled to Riyadh to meet with King Salman and Prince Mohammed bin Salman as international attention escalated in Khashoggi’s case.

Pompeo’s trip to the Gulf came two weeks after Khashoggi’s incident, who was a prominent journalist and string critic of the Saudi crown prince, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Just days before Pompeo arrived in Riyadh, Turkish officials announced that Khashoggi had been killed and his body was cut off just minutes after he entered the consulate to receive papers he needed to marry.

Pompeo was sent to Riyadh to advise Saudi leaders.

At the time of Pompeo’s trip to Riyadh, senior American officials – including US President Donald Trump – spoke little about what happened to Khashoggi, who lived in exile he had chosen for himself in the United States during his disappearance.

The meeting between Pompeo and Mohammed bin Salman raised the specter of many, while human rights groups insisted on Washington asking its allies in Saudi Arabia for answers.

On the day after the high-level meeting, Pompeo told reporters that the Saudis did not want to talk about the Khashoggi case and that he felt reciprocal.

“I do not want to talk about any facts”, Pompeo said as he traveled to Turkey.

They did not want to talk about it”.

The Saudi source told the British website that Pompeo traveled to Riyadh to advise the Saudis how to deal with the repercussions of the Khashoggi case.

However, after meeting with the Saudis, Pompeo said he advised them to conduct a transparent investigation into what had happened.

“We have had frank and direct talks.

In which it stressed the importance of conducting a detailed, transparent and urgent investigation, and the Saudi leadership in turn committed to meet these demands”.

According to my assessment of these meetings, there is a serious commitment on the part of Saudi Arabia to know all the facts and ensure accountability of those involved, including the accountability of senior leaders in Saudi Arabia or officials in it.

Meanwhile and according to Reuters, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman faces growing anger from some members of the ruling family over his policies and reports of his involvement in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashaki, according to three sources close to the royal palace.

These sources told Reuters that dozens of princes and cousins ​​of Prince Mohammed of the Saud family want to change the crown prince and the method of taking the position of Crown Prince, but they cannot move as long as King Salman bin Abdul Aziz alive.

They say the 82 year old king is unlikely to turn on his 33 year old son.

Opponents in the royal family tend to succeed Prince Mohammed to empower Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, uncle of the crown prince and brother of King Salman, to succeed the Saudi monarch after his death, according to sources.

Prince Ahmed, 76, returned to the kingdom in September after more than two months in Britain and sparked controversy after publicly criticizing the Saudi leadership in retaliation against protesters who chanted against him as he entered his London residence.