In October 2018, Saudi dissident and U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by a team of agents who — which was recently revealed — were acting with the approval of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). 

A recent intelligence report proves MBS approved the assassination of Khashoggi. Khashoggi was a former adviser to the government turned dissident, who went into exile in the U.S. in 2017. He then began writing criticisms of the Crown Prince for the Washington Post.

Khashoggi was murdered in Turkey. He had gone to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to gain the necessary documents to marry his fiance but never returned after entering the consulate. 

At the time, Saudi Arabia denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s whereabouts — he hadn’t been seen for more than two weeks after visiting the consulate in Turkey. However, the Saudi government later said Khashoggi had been killed during an altercation with a negotiations team meant to bring him back to Saudi Arabia. This was the official story after an investigation into the incident was conducted by Saudi Arabia’s deputy public prosecutor.

The most important conclusions from the investigation: five people confessed to the murder, and the investigator stated MBS had no knowledge of the assassination. 

This is a long and incredibly complex story, and there’s more to it than we can talk about here, but what we need to focus on is the report the Biden administration recently released, which is the official intelligence finding from more than two years ago. 

“We assess Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi,” the report said. 

This was a state-sanctioned murder of a political dissident and journalist with the courage to criticize the Saudi government — the murder of a man who committed no crime. 

After releasing the report, Biden announced a series of actions against lower-level Saudi officials as a means of penalizing the state for the gross human rights abuses that took place in October 2018. 

The first of these is the Khashoggi Ban, which “imposes restrictions on visas on anyone who harms, suppresses or even threatens journalists, activists and dissidents.”

As of late February, 76 Saudi officials had been sanctioned through the Khashoggi Ban. The Treasury Department also sanctioned MBS’ personal protective detail, who they said was involved in Khashoggi’s death, as well as the “ringleader” of the murder. 

One very important person has received no punishment for Khashoggi’s murder: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He needs to be held accountable. 

Under his watch, and with his approval, government officials carried out the extrajudicial killing of a writer exercising his freedom of expression, a violation of internationally recognized human rights. 

However, in discussing this situation, we must also acknowledge the complexity of our relationship with Saudi Arabia. 

Saudi Arabia is a key trading partner and ally, but most importantly, perhaps, Saudi Arabia is one of the largest buyers of American weapons. 

Regardless of views on the military industrial complex, there would be economic consequences for Americans if Saudi Arabia decided to cut ties with the U.S. and buy their weapons elsewhere — weapons, we should add, that have been used to bomb Yemen and caused a catastrophic amount of destruction in the region. 

Biden announced earlier this year that the U.S. would halt billions of dollars of arms sales to Saudi Arabia to review its actions in Yemen, something we believe the U.S. should have done years ago. 

While Biden has shown a major — and necessary — shift in relations with Saudi Arabia, there are costs to sanctioning the leader of a powerful foreign country. In the past, the U.S. has acted against leaders such as President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela; however, none were leaders of countries that were major allies.

The Biden administration had to weigh the costs and benefits of acting against Saudi Arabia and stopped short of punishing MBS directly, deciding the cost for the U.S. would be too high because our leaders are going to and should act in the best interest of the United States. 

It’s an unfortunate truth that, in this instance, American strategic interests are going to win out over holding MBS accountable. 

Saudi Arabia is a powerful country. Biden could somehow punish MBS directly — and Saudi Arabia would then turn to China and Russia, with whom Saudi Arabia is establishing deeper relationships, and both countries are willing to overlook the human rights abuses of his government. 

The fact of the matter is that MBS himself is essentially never going to be held accountable for this beyond potential sanctions. 

As tragic and infuriating it is to know how powerful the crown prince is, it’s best to understand that as long as he is in power in Saudi Arabia, he can continue to approve of and carry out these human rights abuses without being directly held responsible.  

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be held accountable, but he isn’t going to be for a number of reasons. It’s much more complex than many of us would like it to be.  

So what is Biden doing instead? 

The Khashoggi Ban’s sanctions will become part of U.S. Department of State’s annual human rights report. Officials called this an effort to establish a new category of human rights abuses called “extraterritorial repression.” This is an important move as countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and other nations continue to try to silence dissidents and journalists living in Europe or the U.S. 

Officials said while the ban currently applies to Saudi officials, it would soon be used around the world. 

Biden has started the important process of changing our relationship with Saudi Arabia. No longer should the United States continue to turn a blind eye to the country’s human rights abuses in the name of preserving trade and diplomatic relations. While he has not gone as far as many would like him to go, Biden is essentially doing what he can. 

In releasing the report, Biden’s administration was condemning MBS and establishing the new nature of the United States’s involvement with Saudi Arabia. 

And really, what else can be done? 

There is no winning — not for Khashoggi, not for the tens of other journalists and dissidents who have suffered at the hands of the Saudi government or the thousands of Yemeni civilians killed in unlawful airstrikes.

The saddest part of all of this is Khashoggi himself, who will never know how far-reaching the impacts of his life and death would be. 

“I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot. I want you to know that Saudi Arabia has not always been as it is now. We Saudis deserve better,” Khashoggi wrote in 2017. 

Read more about Khashoggi here.