US president defends inaction against MBS

US President Joe Biden defended his decision to waive any punishment for Saudi Arabia's crown prince in the killing of a US-based journalist, claiming that acting against the Saudi royal would have been diplomatically unprecedented for the United States.

Biden, in an ABC News interview that aired Wednesday, discussed his administration's decision to exempt Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) from any penalties for the Oct 2, 2018, killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. US intelligence, in a report released Feb. 26, concluded that the crown prince authorized the team of Saudi security and intelligence officials that killed Khashoggi.

"We held accountable all the people in that organization - but not the crown prince, because we have never that I'm aware of when we have an alliance with a country, gone to the acting head of state and punished that person and ostracized him," Biden said in his first extended public comments on his administration's decision, according to remarks carried by The Associated Press (AP).

Biden was overstating the US relationship with Saudi Arabia, however. The United States has no treaty binding itself with Saudi Arabia, and the kingdom is not one of the Arab countries designated as a major non-Nato ally. The US often refers to the kingdom as a strategic partner because of its oil production, its status as a regional counterbalance to Iran and its counterterrorism cooperation.

The US has imposed visa restrictions and penalties on the Saudi agents who killed and dismembered Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, however he failed to punish MBS, making clear that America's strategic goals are more important.