Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman defended his country’s record on terrorism and denied any Saudi complicity in the 9/11 attacks, saying that Osama bin Laden had deliberately used Saudi nationals to sabotage relations between Riyadh and Washington. His remarks came during a joint press appearance with US President Donald Trump at the White House, where the two leaders announced a civilian nuclear agreement and a deal for the sale of F-35 fighter jets.
As families of 9/11 victims protested outside the venue, demanding accountability, the Crown Prince was pressed by reporters about the attacks and the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Salman insisted that bin Laden’s true objective had been to damage the decades-old partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States.
"I feel painful about the families of my wife and I that live in America. But we must focus on reality. Based on CIA documents, Osama Bin Laden used Saudi people at that event for one main purpose, to destroy this relation, to destroy the American-Saudi relation. That's the purpose of 9-11. So, whoever buys that, that means they are helping Osama bin Laden's purpose of destroying this relation. He knows that strong relation between America and Saudi Arabia is bad for extremism. It's bad for terrorism," said Prince Salman.
The Crown Prince urged Americans to move forward and “prove him wrong” by strengthening bilateral ties. “We must prove him wrong and continue to build our relationship. It’s critical in the safety of the world,” he said, as President Trump stood beside him.
Salman described the September 11 attacks as a “huge mistake”, expressing sorrow for the lives lost and stressing that the Saudi administration has taken measures to prevent similar incidents. “It's really painful to hear (about) anyone who has been losing his life for, you know, no real purpose or not in a legal way. It's been painful for us in Saudi Arabia. We did all the right steps of investigation, et cetera, in Saudi Arabia, and we've improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. It's painful and a huge mistake. We are doing our best that this doesn't happen again,” he said.
The press briefing grew tense when Trump was asked about Khashoggi’s killing. The president immediately defended Salman, saying, “He (Salman) knew nothing about it.” His comment contradicted a 2021 US intelligence report which concluded that the Crown Prince had approved the killing. Salman called the incident “painful.”
Khashoggi, a prominent journalist and critic of the Saudi regime, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The killing triggered global outrage and severely strained ties between Washington and Riyadh. US intelligence agencies have consistently held that Prince Salman was behind the operation, a claim he continues to deny.
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