More than two weeks after his father was murdered, Saleh Khashoggi received a phone call from King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The king and his chosen heir phoned Jamal Khashoggi’s eldest son on Sunday to express his condolences after the journalist was killed on October 2.
Khashoggi was at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to get papers so he could marry his Turkish fiancee when he was killed.
Saudi Arabia only admitted the Washington Post journalist was dead after weeks of denying anything to do with his disappearance.
The government has claimed that Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Saudi rulers, died during a fistfight in the consulate. Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir has since described the incident as murder and vowed to ‘punish those who are responsible’.
Saudia Arabia’s royal court put out an official image, featuring both King Salman and Prince Mohammed’s pictures, to announce the phone call to Saleh.
‘The leadership extends condolences to the family of Jamal Khashoggi,’ the headline of the image read.
‘Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud extends condolences to the family and relatives of Jamal Khashoggi.’
‘Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Defense, has made a phone call with Saleh Khashoggi, in which he offers condolences to him and his family on the death of Jamal Khashoggi.’
The image comes as it was revealed that Prince Mohammed was reportedly shocked by the backlash against Khashoggi’s murder and Saudi Arabia’s response to it.
His royal court was ‘relaxed’ when news of Khashoggi’s disappearance first broke, a source close to Saudi Arabia’s royal family told the Wall Street Journal.
Jamal Khashoggi
‘Then it snowballed. When things started heated up in the States, everybody started getting worried,’ the source added.
And no one was reportedly more surprised than the Crown Prince, who couldn’t see why the story was ‘such a big deal’.
‘He was really shocked that there was such a big reaction to it,’ added another source close to the royal court.
‘He feels betrayed by the West. He said he will never forget how people turned against him before evidence was produced.’
The furor surrounding Khashoggi’s death has showed no signs of slowing down since he first vanished at the beginning of the month.
After weeks of denying they knew anything about Khashoggi’s disappearance, the Saudi government confirmed he was dead.
On Sunday a Saudi official claimed that Khashoggi was killed by ‘rogue’ operatives who placed him ‘in a chokehold position’ to prevent him from leaving the consulate and calling for help.
The official said Mr Khashoggi after resisting attempts to return him to Saudi Arabia before his body was rolled in a rug and given to a local ‘co-operator’ to dispose of.
Eighteen men have since been detained by the government in connection with Khashoggi’s murder.
Prince Mohammed was reportedly so astounded by the international response to Khashoggi that he even reached out to Jared Kushner.
He reportedly called Kushner on October 10 – eight days after Khashoggi disappeared – and asked him ‘why the outrage’, according to sources who were briefed on the phone conversation.
Kushner and National Security Adviser John Bolton then reportedly told the prince that he needed to ‘get to the bottom of Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance fast’.
Trump has since tried to downplay Kushner and the prince’s friendship, telling reporters on Saturday that they are just ‘two young guys’ who are the ‘same age’.