(MENAFN- Live Mint) The widow of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Tuesday (November 18) urged Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) to personally apologize after he described the 2018 killing as a“huge mistake” during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

“The Crown Prince said he was sorry so he should meet me, apologize and compensate me for the murder of my husband,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi wrote on X.

MBS calls killing“painful” and a“huge mistake”

During his first White House visit in seven years, MBS said Saudi Arabia had“done all the right steps” to investigate Khashoggi's death.

“It's painful and it's a huge mistake,” the crown prince said, adding that the kingdom is“doing our best that this doesn't happen again.”

The journalist, a Washington Post columnist and outspoken critic of the Saudi leadership, was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by Saudi agents.

Trump defends MBS

President Donald Trump contradicted US intelligence assessments that the crown prince likely approved the killing, instead offering a defense of MBS.

“Whether you like him or don't like him, things happen,” Trump told reporters, insisting“he knew nothing about it.”

He went further, describing Khashoggi as“extremely controversial,” saying,“A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about... but he (the prince) knew nothing about it.”

Trump praises MBS's human rights record

Despite global condemnation of the killing, Trump hailed the crown prince's leadership and rights record.

“We have an extremely respected man in the Oval Office today... a very good friend of mine,” Trump said.

“I'm very proud of the job he's done. What he's done is incredible, in terms of human rights and everything else.”

US intelligence previously implicated the Crown Prince

Declassified US intelligence findings released in 2021 concluded that MBS did likely approve the operation targeting Khashoggi. The Trump administration refused to make the findings public during Trump's first term.

Khashoggi's murder had plunged US-Saudi relations into turmoil, with the operation widely condemned as a state-sanctioned killing of a dissident.

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