On Friday evening, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on the Saudi Rapid Intervention Forces and the former Deputy Head of General Intelligence in the Kingdom for their role in the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
A senior Biden administration official, who requested anonymity, said the approach aims to create a new starting point for relations with the kingdom without breaking a core relationship in the Middle East.
On Friday evening, the administration of US President Joe Biden released a declassified copy of the CIA report on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
“We see that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved in 2018 an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to arrest or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the office of the Director of National Intelligence said in the report published on the administration’s website.
He added, “We base this assessment on the crown prince’s control of the decision-making process in the Kingdom and the direct involvement of a key advisor and members of the Mohammed bin Salman protection team in the process and support for the crown prince to use violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi.”
The report indicated that the Saudi crown prince saw Khashoggi as a threat to the kingdom, and greatly supported the violence.
The declassified document listed 21 individuals whom the CIA had high confidence that they were involved or responsible for Khashoggi’s killing on behalf of the crown prince.
US President Joe Biden decided to declassify the report, which former President Donald Trump refused to publish in defiance of a law passed in 2019, which reflects the new American willingness to challenge the kingdom on issues from human rights to the war in Yemen.
Biden’s actions in the first weeks of his administration appear to be aimed at fulfilling campaign promises to reorganize Saudi relations after critics accused his predecessor, Donald Trump, of overreaching serious human rights violations by Saudi Arabia.
Relations have been severely strained for years due to the war in Yemen and the killing of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and Khashoggi was residing in the United States and writing for the Washington Post.
