Biden resorted to the longstanding US foreign policy that looks the other way as America’s autocratic allies commit atrocities at home and abroad
On Friday, Joe Biden’s administration confirmed what the world knew: that Saudi Arabia’s ruthless crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the assassination of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Biden followed through on a campaign promise to release a summary report of the US intelligence community’s findings on the murder, and he undid two years of stonewalling by Donald Trump.
But Biden failed to keep a more important promise: to hold Khashoggi’s killers accountable. Worried about disrupting the US-Saudi relationship, Biden decided not to impose sanctions on the crown prince. By giving the prince a pass, Biden skirted true justice for the murdered journalist and other dissidents who have suffered at Prince Mohammed’s hands. And, in turn, the reckless prince is unlikely to be dissuaded from more repression and crimes.
