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<\/a><\/p>\nThe CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government\u2019s claims that he was not involved in the killing, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/span><\/p>\n The CIA\u2019s assessment, in which officials have said they have high confidence, is the most definitive to date linking Mohammed to the operation and complicates the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to preserve its relationship with a close ally. A team of 15 Saudi agents flew to Istanbul on government aircraft in October and killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate, where he had come to pick up documents that he needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.<\/span><\/p>\n In reaching its conclusions, the CIA examined multiple sources of intelligence, including a phone call that the prince\u2019s brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, had with Khashoggi, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence. Khalid told Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, that he should go to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the documents and gave him assurances that it would be safe to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n It is not clear if Khalid knew that Khashoggi would be killed, but he made the call at his brother\u2019s direction, according to the people familiar with the call, which was intercepted by U.S. intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n Fatimah Baeshen, a spokeswoman for the Saudi embassy in Washington, said the ambassador and Khashoggi never discussed \u201canything related to going to Turkey.\u201d She added that the claims in the CIA\u2019s \u201cpurported assessment are false. We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the primary basis for these speculations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The CIA\u2019s conclusion about Mohammed\u2019s role was also based on the agency\u2019s assessment of the prince as the country\u2019s de facto ruler who oversees even minor affairs in the kingdom. \u201cThe accepted position is that there is no way this happened without him being aware or involved,\u201d said a U.S. official familiar with the CIA\u2019s conclusions.<\/span><\/p>\n The CIA sees Mohammed as a \u201cgood technocrat,\u201d the U.S. official said, but volatile and arrogant, someone who \u201cgoes from zero to 60, doesn\u2019t seem to understand that there are some things you can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n CIA analysts believe he has a firm grip on power and is not in danger of losing his status as heir to the throne despite the Khashoggi scandal. \u201cThe general agreement is that he is likely to survive,\u201d the official said, adding that Mohammed\u2019s role as the future Saudi king is \u201ctaken for granted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n