Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on out-of-court executions.
Last week, the Biden administration found Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman involved in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, but no sanctions were taken against him. Agnes Callamard, the U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, said Monday (March 1) that the Biden Administration‘s approach was “extremely dangerous.
According to a U.S. intelligence report declassified by the Biden administration on Friday, Salman approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Saudi critic.
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Karamad said it was “disappointing that so little of the report appears to have been declassified” and that she had expected more physical evidence to be released.
While the U.S. has imposed sanctions on some of those involved in the murder, it did not sanction the crown prince himself to preserve relations with Saudi Arabia.
Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on out-of-court killings who led the investigation into the 2018 murder of Khashoggi, reiterated that sanctions should be imposed on Salman, including his assets and international dealings.
Karamad said, “It seems to me extremely problematic, if not dangerous: admitting someone’s culpability and then telling them ‘but we’re not going to do anything, please go ahead and do it, please act like we haven’t said anything.’ To me, that’s an extremely dangerous move to take on the part of the United States.”
“There are many things that the U.S. government can do, but one thing it can’t do, it can’t do, is to remain silent and take no action on their own investigative report.” Kalamad added.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that the U.S. reserves the right to sanction the crown prince in the future if necessary. She added: “Historically in the United States, neither Democratic nor Republican presidents have typically sanctioned the leaders of governments of countries with which we have diplomatic relations.”
The Biden administration announced Monday a new approach to Saudi Arabia called “realignment” to make the bilateral relationship more sustainable.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced the Biden administration, which he described as “politically” motivated in releasing the declassified report and bent on worsening U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia on the issue.
“The release of this report is reckless. It is political. It is designed to harm relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the use of intelligence. As a former CIA director, I would never approve of that.” Pompeo said, “So I regret that they chose to do this. It’s a political stunt.”
Pompeo added, “I regret that because this administration wants to develop relations with Iran, it chose to undermine relations with Saudi Arabia, and they chose to use intelligence to do that.”
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