President Biden mocked an announcement on Saudi Arabia on Saturday after publishing an official report accusing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of ordering the operation that killed Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden told reporters on the White House turf, “There will be an announcement on Monday about what we will do with Saudi Arabia in general.”
Biden answered a question from The Post about whether he would punish the 35-year-old crown prince, who is the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom.
A U.S. official report released Friday says the prince, commonly known by his initials MBS, ordered the 2018 attack on Khashoggi.
Biden spoke Thursday with the prince’s father, King Salman, 85, before the condemnatory news release was published.
On Friday, the Biden administration announced sanctions against dozens of Saudis identified as involved in Khashoggi’s assassination, but none against the Crown Prince.
Khashoggi was a resident of Virginia and a columnist for the Washington Post when he was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Turkish authorities say Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered with a bone saw.
Former President Donald Trump argued that the strategic alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia was too important to risk punishing Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi’s death, which occurred when the crown prince consolidated power .
But some proponents say the U.S. should use its influence to force the prince’s resignation.
Saudi courts sentenced to death five people who were allegedly involved in Khashoggi’s death, but those sentences were later turned into 20 years in prison. Saudi Arabia’s legal system has not prosecuted the Crown Prince.
Biden has already changed the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, even ending US support for the long-running Saudi military campaign to restore Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi. which was ousted in 2015 by an allied militia of Iran that still controls the majority of the country’s population. areas.