Psaki: ‘More effective ways’ to hold Saudi Arabia to account for Khashoggi’s assassination than to take control of crown prince

On Friday, the administration released a confirmed intelligence report about Khashoggi’s death that said the crown prince, known as MBS, had directly consented to the journalist’s murder. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced visa restrictions that affected 76 Saudis involved in harassing activists and journalists, but did not announce measures related to a prince despite President Joe Biden ‘s promise to punish Saudi leaders while on the campaign trail.

CNN had previously said that two administrative officials said approving MBS was never an option, acting under the impression that it would have been “too complex” and could have put it at risk. on U.S. military interests in Saudi Arabia. As a result, the administration did not even ask the State Department to work out options for targeting MBS with sanctions, one State Department official said.

Biden told the White House on Saturday that there will be news on Monday “about what we are going to do with Saudi Arabia in general.” He also told Univision on Friday that he was now dealing with the Saudi King and not bin Salman, says the rules are “changing” in US relations with the Saudis.

White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said on Sunday that Biden’s forthcoming news was not a “new policy announcement, but an” explanation “of Friday’s actions.

“Tomorrow, the State Department is going to issue a complete package, if you will, walking through all the actions taken by the administration on Friday,” she told MSNBC.

Bedingfield also defended the administration’s decision not to impose control on MBS, saying “historically, the United States has not imposed sanctions on the sovereignty of countries with which we have diplomatic relations,” “including Russian and Chinese leaders.

Democrat Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware later told Bash on “State of the Union” that the administration is “not yet down to rebalancing the relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” adding that “the balance of rights humanitarian welfare and regional security and security as part of the hard work of diplomacy. ”

But Coons would not say Sunday if he thought the crown prince should be punished directly for Khashoggi’s death, telling Bash instead that he is looking forward “to having ongoing talks with the administration of this matter. ”

This story was updated with additional details on Sunday.