Mohammed bin Salman is stained by the murder of a journalist and a devastating war. The US response remains limited – and the UK’s is worse
On 2 October 2018, the journalist Jamal Khashoggi walked into Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul. Within minutes he was murdered and his body dismembered; his remains have never been found. While the last of Riyadh’s many stories portrayed it as a “rogue operation”, the CIA swiftly concluded that the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved his killing. But Donald Trump, an admirer of the brash young prince, declared otherwise and declined to act.
Joe Biden, then a presidential candidate, vowed that he would make Saudi Arabia “pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are”. Now in a position to act on his pledge, he appears to have changed his mind. On Friday, Washington declassified an intelligence assessment on the killing, as promised; the president is also to snub the crown prince, dealing only with King Salman. But while the US declines to say whether Prince Mohammed is included in the “Khashoggi ban” that it has imposed on visas for 76 Saudi officials, the clear message is business as usual, with only minor changes.
