The widow of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi described Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s upcoming visit to Washington as “very painful,” as President Donald Trump prepares a lavish White House welcome complete with defense and nuclear agreements—including the sale of advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets—marking the prince’s first trip to the US since the alleged 2018 murder that shocked the world.
Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, who married the Washington Post columnist just months before his death, spoke out in a CNN interview aired Monday, expressing anguish over the warm reception awaiting the de facto Saudi ruler, widely known as MBS.
“It’s very painful for me,” she told CNN’s Jim Sciutto, envisioning a world where her husband could have engaged directly with the prince. “It will be better if Jamal was here and receiving the crown prince by himself, and meet him and share with him his vision and mission and all his ideas.”
Khashoggi, a US resident and vocal critic of the Saudi regime, had long sought dialogue with MBS. “Before his death, Jamal actually was waiting for an invitation from the crown prince and wished to have the space to be heard,” Elatr Khashoggi said. “He had good ideas for his country.”
She portrayed her late husband not as a fiery dissident but as a “homesick patriot” eager for reforms.
Elatr Khashoggi, an Egyptian-born former Emirates flight attendant who was granted political asylum in the US in 2023 after fearing for her life in the UAE and Egypt, has been vocal about the personal toll of the killing.
“The killing destroyed my life,” she told CNN, revealing she had written to Trump seeking assistance in securing a financial settlement from MBS to provide for her and Khashoggi’s family.
In a November 12 press availability, she reiterated her plea: “The murder of my husband has caused me to lose everything: the love of my life, my livelihood, and my family,” urging accountability as a “goodwill gesture” amid warming US-Saudi ties.
As MBS arrives, Trump is set to host a full state-visit-style itinerary: a morning welcome ceremony, Oval Office talks, a Cabinet Room lunch, and a black-tie dinner.
The agenda includes multibillion-dollar pacts on defense sales, civil nuclear energy cooperation, and Saudi investments in US AI infrastructure—fulfilling a $600 billion pledge from Trump’s May 2025 Riyadh visit.
Trump confirmed on Monday that he will greenlight the sale of up to 48 F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia, a multibillion-dollar deal that has cleared Pentagon hurdles despite concerns over technology leaks to China via Riyadh’s security ties with Beijing and risks to Israel’s regional military edge as the Middle East’s sole F-35 operator.
Yet the shadow of Khashoggi looms large. On October 2, 2018, the Virginia-based columnist entered Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate for marriage documents and was never seen alive again. A 15-member Saudi hit squad, including members of MBS’s elite protective detail, strangled and dismembered him with a bone saw, according to Turkish surveillance and UN investigations.
His body has never been recovered.
US intelligence has long pinned responsibility on MBS. A 2021 declassified report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) concluded with “medium to high confidence” that the crown prince “approved an operation in Istanbul to capture or kill” Khashoggi, citing his absolute control over Saudi security decisions and prior support for silencing dissidents abroad.
The CIA assessment, released post-murder, echoed this, linking MBS directly despite his denials—he has admitted only “responsibility” as ruler. No updates have altered this finding in 2025, though Reuters notes the uproar has “receded into history” amid strategic priorities.
In Saudi Arabia, an opaque 2019 trial convicted five low-level operatives (death sentences commuted to prison terms) and three others, while acquitting 15—including top aides—drawing UN condemnation as a “sham” lacking transparency or higher accountability.
Elatr Khashoggi implored the US to prioritize principles over profits. “I hope they look at the American values of human rights and (democracy) besides any deal and selling weapons,” she said.
“There is something missing… real justice.”
Her words resonate with critics like Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), who in 2021 called for consequences to deter “autocrats around the world” from impunity.
Trump’s embrace revives a bond from his first term, when he shielded MBS post-murder, contrasting Biden’s brief “pariah” label before recalibration.
Analysts like John Hannah of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America note Saudi ambitions have “trimmed” without full normalization with Israel—a prior F-35 precondition stalled by the Gaza war—but defense pacts remain imminent.
Elatr Khashoggi, committed to her husband’s legacy of press freedom, vows to press on. “We’re determined to get justice for Jamal and peace… for Hanan,” her lawyer said in 2023.
- By ET Desk with CNN & AFP Inputs
- Story modified by the EurAsian Times team
