Reference News Network, November 19 report: According to Reuters, November 18 report, US President Trump said on the 18th that he would designate Saudi Arabia as a "major non-NATO ally" of the United States.
Trump said during a dinner with the visiting Saudi Crown Prince: "We will formally designate Saudi Arabia as a major non-NATO ally, which will raise our military cooperation to a higher level, which is very important for them."
According to AFP, November 18 report, Trump strongly defended the Saudi Crown Prince over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Trump said when answering questions about the former Washington Post columnist Khashoggi's killing: "He was a highly controversial figure. Many people did not like this gentleman. Whether you like him or not, the incident has already happened."
Trump also said that the Saudi Crown Prince "had nothing to do with it," and sharply criticized the ABC News reporter who raised the issue. He accused the reporter of trying to embarrass a visiting "very good friend."
The report said that the Saudi Crown Prince was welcomed in the United States with a cavalry escort, a gun salute, and F-15 and F-35 fighter jets flying overhead, and was highly praised by the US President in the Oval Office.
The report mentioned that Khashoggi, who lived in the United States and had shifted from being close to the Saudi regime to becoming a critic, was killed by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, and his body has never been found. This incident once almost froze US-Saudi relations.
The Saudi Crown Prince said: "It is painful, a big mistake, and we are doing our best to ensure that such incidents do not happen again." (Translated by Liu Baiyun, Lin Xiaoxuan)
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