Khashoggi murder: Biden’s Saudi dilemma
A newly released intelligence report on the grisly murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has President Biden “walking a tightrope on Saudi Arabia,” said Peter Bergen in CNN.com. The 2018 report, which the Trump administration buried but the Biden administration just declassified, concludes what many have long believed: that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman directed the savage killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi expat living in the U.S. Targeted for his criticism of the prince, known as MBS, Khashoggi was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, suffocated, and dismembered with a bone saw. On releasing the report, the Biden administration barred 76 Saudis from the U.S. and imposed sanctions on several security officials. But the administration stopped “far short of taking direct action against MBS”— sparking complaints that Biden was following Trump in sweeping the murder under the rug.
This is a crucial test for Biden—and he’s failing, said Fred Ryan in The Washington Post. Biden vowed while campaigning to make MBS a “pariah” and “re-establish the United States as a champion of human rights.” Now it seems that despots who happen to be of strategic value get a “one free murder” pass. “There is no legal, moral, or logical reason” to sanction “lower-level players” while letting MBS—who ordered the political assassination—off the hook. Biden’s failure to stand up for dissent and human rights will have consequences, said Robin Wright in NewYorker .com. “Putin, Kim, Assad, and the world’s other autocrats” will conclude that on Biden’s watch, “they can do as they please.”
Actually, Biden is charting a prudent course, said Tom Rogan in WashingtonExaminer.com. The murder was a “moral disgrace,” but it would be a “serious mistake to make Khashoggi’s tombstone the centerpiece” of America’s Saudi policy. The Saudis keep the global energy market stable and are key to our Middle East “alliance structure,” with their Sunni state serving as a crucial counterbalance to Shiite Iran’s aggression. And MBS’s advancement of social and economic reforms holds promise for his country’s long-term stability and evolution. Sanctioning the “absolute monarch” of a critical “geopolitical partner” would come with a huge cost, said Graeme Wood in TheAtlantic.com. The hard reality is that we’re “stuck in a miserable situation,” which will end with “an American official shaking hands, once again, with a murderer.”