Biden breaks campaign promise and WON’T punish Saudi Prince who approved journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder
PRESIDENT Joe Biden on Friday broke his campaign promise to punish Saudi leaders by not sanctioning the crown prince who approved journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination.
No measures punishing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were mentioned in an unclassified intelligence report on Khashoggi’s death released by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The report stated that the crown prince referred to as MBS directly approved the murder of Khashoggi in October 2018.
MBS was not mentioned in a list of sanctions from the Treasury Department that included the Saudi Royal Guard’s rapid intervention force and a former deputy intelligence chief.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled visa restrictions on 76 Saudis who took part in harassing journalists and activists, but did not name MBS.
On the campaign trail in November 2019, Biden had promised to punish Saudi leaders, something that his predecessor Donald Trump would not do.
Asked point blank if he would punish Saudi leaders, Biden answered: “Yes,”
“And I said it at the time, Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince,” Biden said at the time.
“And I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them, we were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them the pariah that they are.”
Biden added that “there’s very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia” and that “they have to be held accountable.”
But sanctioning the crown prince would have been “too complicated” and could put US military interests in Saudi Arabia in jeopardy, so it was never seriously considered, two Biden administration officials told CNN.
The Biden administration did not ask the State Department to come up with ways to sanction MBS, an official with the department told the media outlet.
Ayham Kamel, the practice head of the Middle East and North Africa at the Eurasia Group, told CNN that the Biden administration is not looking to further influence Saudia Arabia or the succession.
Saudi leadership has “decided to adopt a constructive position over the short term to limit tensions with the US,” Kamel said, pointing to the release of human rights activists as an example.
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Notably, the US has a stake in seeing MBS succeed because he aims to modernize the Saudi economy and promote more religious tolerance, among other issues.
A Saudi dissident and MBS critic, Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by operatives in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
“The Crown Prince viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the Kingdom and broadly supported using violent measures if necessary to silence him,” the new report stated.