Psaki: ‘More effective ways’ to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for Khashoggi’s murder than to sanction the Crown Prince

Psaki: ‘More effective ways’ to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for Khashoggi’s murder than to sanction the Crown Prince

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“We believe that there are more effective ways to ensure that this does not happen again and also that we can leave space to work with the Saudis in areas where there is mutual agreement – where there are national interests for the United States. that’s what diplomacy looks like, “Psaki told CNN’s Dana Bash in” State of the Union “when asked why the government is punishing people under the crown prince, but not him.

“This is what looks like complicated global involvement and we have left no secret and made it clear that we will hold them accountable on the global stage and with direct actions,” added Psaki, who called the 2018 Khashoggi murder a “horrible crime”.

On Friday, the government released a substandard intelligence report on Khashoggi’s death that said the Crown Prince, known as MBS, directly approved the murder of the journalist. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced visa restrictions that affected 76 Saudis involved in harassing activists and journalists, but he did not announce measures that would affect the Crown Prince, despite the fact that President Joe Biden promised to punish Saudi leaders during the campaign.
CNN previously reported that two government officials said that sanctioning the MBS was never really an option, operating under the belief that it would be “too complicated” and could have jeopardized US military interests in Saudi Arabia. As a result, the government has not even asked the State Department to elaborate options on how to combat the MBS with sanctions, said a State Department official.

Biden said at the White House on Saturday that there will be an announcement on Monday “about what we will do with Saudi Arabia in general”. He also told Univision on Friday that he was now dealing with the Saudi king and not with Bin Salman, saying that “the rules are changing” in the United States’ relationship with the Saudis.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware told Bash later in the program that the government “has not yet recalibrated the relationship between the United States and the Saudi kingdom”, adding that “balancing human rights and our regional interests and security is part of the hard work of diplomacy. ”

But Coons did not say on Sunday whether he thought the Crown Prince should be directly punished for Khashoggi’s death, telling Bash instead that he hopes “to have ongoing talks with the administration on this matter.”

This story is emerging and will be updated.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak, Vivian Salama and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

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