(CNN) Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told a top aide in 2017 that he would use "a bullet" on Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a New York Times report citing US and foreign officials with direct knowledge of intelligence reports.

The conversation -- with aide Turki Aldakhil -- occurred in September 2017, just over a year before Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was killed and dismembered after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Times reported Thursday.

In the conversation, bin Salman reportedly said that if Khashoggi -- a Saudi royal court insider turned government critic -- could not be tempted back to the kingdom, then he should be returned forcibly. If that did not work, the Crown Prince said he would go after Khashoggi "with a bullet," the Times reported officials familiar with one of the intelligence reports as saying.

The recording was intercepted at the time by US intelligence, the Times said. However, its significance was only understood when it was listened to by intelligence officers after Khashoggi's death.

The article also claimed that days before the conversation with Aldakhil, according to the same intelligence report, bin Salman complained to another aide, Saud al-Qahtani, that Khashoggi had grown too influential and was reportedly tarnishing his image as a reformer.