Khashoggi Assassination | US secret services point out the Prince of Saudi Arabia

Defence Redefined

27/02/2021

The Biden Administration wants to “recalibrate” its relations with Saudi Arabia, but it does not want a “rupture”, said yesterday the head of American diplomacy Anthony Blinken, justifying the absence of sanctions against the Saudi Crown Prince. The statements followed the release of the US intelligence report on the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) released yesterday the declassified report of the American secret services on the assassination of Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, with the estimation that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Bill Salman approved – and probably ordered – his murder.

Following the release of the report, the United States announced a series of sanctions against Saudi officials under a new regulation called the “Khashoggi Ban”.

“The report speaks for itself,” Blinken told reporters yesterday, defending the sanctions, saying the measures would prevent similar actions by the Sunni kingdom in the future. 

Many Democrats and senators have condemned the government’s decision not to immediately punish the young Saudi prince. 

“And so what we’ve done by the actions that we’ve taken is really not to rupture the relationship, but to recalibrate it so as to be more in line with our interests and our values,” Blinken told reporters at a press conference. US President Joe Biden also said yesterday that he had stressed to Saudi King Salman “..the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law” and that Washington would announce significant changes in the relations between the two countries.

The United States, meanwhile, has said it is imposing financial sanctions on a Saudi special operations unit and on former intelligence chief Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al-Asiri for his role in the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Sanctions were also imposed on the crown prince’s security, known as the Rapid Intervention Force. This unit refers only to the prince (also known as MBS) and “participated in previous operations against dissidents in the kingdom and abroad.”

Seven members of this force joined the group that killed the Saudi Journalist.

The Rapid Intervention Force was overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, a former close adviser to the prince, who is also accused by Turkey of killing Khashoggi. He was not prosecuted in Saudi Arabia. The United States has already banned al-Qahtani from entering US territory.

With information from: CNA, APA-MPA-Reuters-AFP

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