By releasing a declassified intelligence report on the savage murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, the Biden administration has moved to ‘recalibrate’ ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia. The executive summary of the report says, “We assess that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.” The release of the report has been accompanied by the decision to impose visa restrictions on 76 Saudi individuals. However, the absence of any sanctions against MBS, as the Crown Prince is called, has led to a predictable outcry from human rights groups, senior members of the US Congress and leading voices of the media establishment that see the murder of Khashoggi as an attack on the freedom of press. The Saudi foreign office has reacted to the report with indignation, rejecting its ‘negative, false and unacceptable assessment’ even as its statement describes the ‘heinous murder’ of Khashoggi as an ‘abhorrent crime’ and draws attention to the stern action taken by the kingdom against the perpetrators within the framework of its own laws. And former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has jumped into the fray by calling the release of the report ‘reckless’ and a ‘political stunt’ suggesting that the Biden administration wants to develop a relationship with Iran and destroy the one with Saudi Arabia.
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