US report on Saudi killing of journalist underpins Mideast policy shift

NEW YORK: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has personally been blamed in a report released by President Joe Biden's administration for the brazen assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for US media.

The report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) made public on Friday underpins a shift in Middle East Policy by Biden away from the historically very close ties with the kingdom but also shows the limits.

The report's release came a day after Biden had ordered airstrikes on militias in Syria that are backed by the Saudi's nemesis Iran, showing how difficult reworking policies in the region is.

A few days earlier, Biden had removed the sanctions imposed by former President Donald Trump on the Iran-backed Houthi rebels fighting the Saudi-supported government in Yemen.

Biden, who has tried to make human rights the centrepiece of his foreign policy, is facing the compulsions of realpolitik when it comes to dealing with influential middling countries like Saudi Arabia, leave alone powers like China or Russia.

During a debate of candidates for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Biden attacked Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi's murder and said that he would make the kingdom pay the "price" and make it a "pariah".

But now in power, he finds he cannot go that far even as he recalibrates ties with it, while trapped between Riyadh and Teheran.

Salman himself escaped US retribution for the killing of Khashoggi, a permanent resident of the US and a columnist for the influential Washington Post, but instead the State and Treasury departments took separate actions against other Saudis.

This enables the Biden administration to continue working with Riyadh as he is the equivalent of a head of government and it cannot afford break with the regime.

Biden has gone only as far as refusing to talk to Salman citing protocol which places him lower than a president and insisting on talking only with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, even though he is not actively running the country. (IANS)

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