Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi met with Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman, who is the crown prince’s brother and also serves as the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., at the Saudi Embassy in Washington in late 2017 or early 2018, NBC News reported.
Khashoggi’s friends told NBC about the discussion, and the Saudi Embassy confirmed the two met. It was not entirely clear what the two discussed, but, according to friends, Saudi royals had been trying to coax Khashoggi into returning to Saudi Arabia for months. The talk was reportedly cordial and lasted about 30 minutes.
According to NBC, both Khalid and Saud bin Abdullah Al Qahtani, a senior official who was recently fired for his role in Khashoggi’s death, had courted Khashoggi for at least a year and told him he would be welcomed back despite his dissident writing about the kingdom. Al Qahtani offered to give Khashoggi a prominent job.
After blanket denials of knowledge of his disappearance, Saudi officials acknowledged over the weekend that Khashoggi had been killed by “rogue” agents inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. They claimed his death was the result of a fistfight, despite reports that Khashoggi was tortured, murdered and dismembered.
