Saudi Prince approved journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder: US Report
New Delhi : For the first time in history, the United States has publically accused the Saudi prince of approving the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The prince, who is de facto ruler of the longtime US ally and oil provider, "approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi," said an intelligence report newly declassified by President Joe Biden's administration.
The report mentions that under the influence of Prince Mohammad, it is highly unlikely that the 2018 murder could have happened without his consent. The killing also fit a pattern of "the crown prince's support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad."
In honor of the slain writer, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the "Khashoggi Act" that will ban entry into the United States of foreigners who threaten dissidents or harass reporters and their families and immediately placed 76 Saudis on the blacklist.
"We have made absolutely clear that extraterritorial threats and assaults by Saudi Arabia against activists, dissidents and journalists must end. They will not be tolerated by the United States," Blinken said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Saudi government has said that they claim the responsibility of Khashoggi’s murder but they had no idea about it and named it as the rouge operation and has no relevance to the prince.
Biden's decision to release the report -- first completed under Donald Trump -- was a sharp departure from his predecessor, who had vowed to keep working with Saudi Arabia due to the kingdom's lavish purchases of US weapons and shared hostility toward Iran.
