US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman
Credit: Reuters photo
During a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman blamed the 9/11 terrorist Osama Bin Laden for straining Saudi-US ties.
The Crown Prince was answering a question posed by an American journalist regarding the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, saying that the 9/11 families are 'furious' with this meet.
The US President Donald Trump rubbished these accusations and reprimanded the ABC correspondent for 'embarrassing the guest'.
The crown prince though evaded talking much about the assassination of Khashoggi, he did say, "I feel painful about, you know, families of 9/11 in America. But you know, we have to focus on reality."
He went on to say that, "Osama bin Laden used Saudi people in that event for one main purpose—to destroy this relation. To destroy the American-Saudi relation."
The crown prince also said that whoever is "buying" this narrative is helping the bin Laden's purpose. Thus, in order to promote 'safety of the world' and promote "tourism", it is imperative to prove the 9/11 mastermind wrong.
Regarding Khashoggi, he later on said, "About the journalist, it's really painful to hear that anyone losing his life for no real purpose."
The crown prince also said, "We did all the right steps in terms of investigation, etc., in Saudi Arabia and we've improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that."
"It's painful and it's a huge mistake, and we are doing our best that will never happen again," he added.
Trump also declared on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia had agreed to invest $600 billion in the United States with the Saudi Crown Prince promising an increase in investment to $1 trillion.
"I want to thank you because you've agreed to invest $600 billion into the United States, and because he's my friend, he might make it a trillion, but I'm gonna have to work on him," Trump said, referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.