Saudi Crown Prince Meets Trump As 9/11 Survivors Protest: ‘It Was A Huge Mistake’

Survivors and families of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks expressed strong anger over Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to the Oval Office. Responding to concerns, the Crown Prince said Saudi Arabia is doing everything possible to ensure such an incident "never happens again." He emphasised that Osama bin Laden had deliberately used Saudi nationals to damage US-Saudi relations.

Bin Laden, a Saudi national and the founder of al-Qaeda, orchestrated four coordinated attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Mohammed bin Salman faced sharp questions from reporters about 9/11 and the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as he and President Donald Trump addressed the media after announcing a civilian nuclear agreement and the sale of F-35 fighter jets. He reiterated that the objective of the 9/11 attacks was to undermine US-Saudi ties, arguing that accepting that narrative would "help fulfil bin Laden's purpose."

"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," the Crown Prince said.

Standing alongside President Trump, he said both countries must work together to prove bin Laden wrong, calling the partnership "critical in the safety of the world."

Describing 9/11 as a "huge mistake," the Crown Prince said Saudi Arabia had taken all necessary investigative steps and introduced reforms to prevent such an event from recurring. "It's really painful to hear about anyone who has been losing his life for 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... 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 added.

During the joint appearance, President Trump clashed with a reporter over the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, defending the Crown Prince by saying he "knew nothing about it," even though a US intelligence assessment in 2021 concluded that Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the operation. The Crown Prince referred to the killing as "painful."

Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and outspoken critic of the kingdom, was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, triggering a major strain in US-Saudi relations. US agencies determined the Crown Prince was responsible, a conclusion he denies.