The White House on Friday announced new visa restrictions and asset-free sanctions following a disruptive CIA report that confirmed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi – but none of the prince Neither did the penalty strike.
Administration officials said Saudi King Salman’s son will claim direct penalties for the 2018 murder to save America’s relationship with a Virginia-based journalist and Saudi Middle East ally.
A senior Biden official said, “The purpose is to have an iteration (of relationships) – not break up.” “This is because of the important interests that we share.”
Instead, both the Treasury and the state departments announced sanctions against dozens of other Saudis, identified as the murder of Khagogi and being involved inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Under the new, so-called “Khashogi ban”, the US will impose visa restrictions on those who engage in severely disgruntled activities on behalf of foreign governments.
The US has immediately banned the visas of 76 Saudis. “They are believed to be engaged in threatening dissidents abroad, but are not limited to murder,” Secretary Anthony Blinken Said in press statement on Friday.
Those Saudis and their family members face possible future denials of visas, Blinken said.
During this, Treasury Department announced It has frozen former deputy Saudi intelligence chief of US assets Ahmed Hasan Mohammed Al Asiri, accused in the Turkish indictment of Khashogi’s murder.
Frozen is also the US property of members of Saudi Arabia’s elite rapid intervention force, which has been unilaterally denied by Friday’s secret intelligence report for its role in the murder of Khashoggi.
After the initial denial, the Saudi government finally admitted that the 59-year-old dissident and Washington Post columnist was killed in a “rogue” extradition campaign after luring him with promises of paperwork that led to his marriage. Will clean it His Turkish fiancée – but the prince of the Taj himself has denied knowledge of the operation.
With post wires
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