President Joe Biden on Friday issued an order placing a visa ban on 76 Saudi Arabians in connection with the murder of the late journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
This comes after the United States released an intelligence report which accused the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, of approving the 2018 gruesome murder of Khashoggi.
The former Washington Post columnist was killed and allegedly dismembered on October 2, 2018, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, by men said to be connected with the top levels of the Saudi government and the Crown Prince.
Khashoggi was also a critic of Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman’s policies.
But the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who announced the measure described as the “Khashoggi Ban,” alleged that the affected individuals were involved in “threatening dissidents overseas, including but not limited to the Khashoggi killing.’’
Blinken explained that the ban was part of measures by the US government to “reinforce the world’s condemnation of that crime”.
He added that the new policy was aimed at stopping governments that “reach beyond their borders to threaten and attack journalists and perceived dissidents for exercising their fundamental freedoms”.
Blinken said though the US would continue to invest in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, the partnership must reflect US values.
