US imposes sanctions, visa bans on Saudis for Jamal Khashoggi's killing
India TodayThe Biden administration announced sanctions and visa bans on Friday targeting Saudi Arabian citizens over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but stopped short of imposing sanctions on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself. Importantly, the decisions appear designed to preserve a working relationship with the crown prince, the kingdom's de facto leader, even though U.S. intelligence concluded that he approved the operation to capture or kill Khashoggi. A second U.S. official noted that, although Saudi citizens were named in the first use of what the State Department called the "Khashoggi Ban" on visas, "it's really a new global tool." Asked about any debate about applying sanctions against the crown prince, the first U.S. official said that the United States has not generally applied sanctions "on the highest leadership of countries."