To punish Saudi Arabia with “Khashoggi Ban”, Baiden reflected a plan developed under Trump.



The move, dubbed “Khashoggi Ban” by the state department, led to the issuance of a visa ban on Sa Saudis and their families. The plan was initially drawn up by the Trump administration, which reassured it for fear of distancing itself from a Middle Eastern ally. According to people familiar with the development of the policy, Biden’s team considered the idea during the transition, once they were in office fees to find out that career state department officials had already worked out the plan.

A senior Trump administration official confirmed that the plan had been sent by most senior officials in the Trump administration and was rejected by “consensus recommendation” after discussion.

After Biden was sworn in, the new officers appointed to the State Department arrived with “a similar concept already in mind,” a Biden administration official said. They asked career experts who pushed the plan under Trump what could be done to make it a success.

Finally, a list of 76 Saudis on “Khashoggi Ban”, whose names have been released by the State Department, was sent to Congress in February 2020 as part of a classified report on the proceedings under consideration by then-Secretary of State Mike. Pompeo, an official who has seen the lists, told CNN.

While it is not uncommon for the administration, especially early on, to use the idea considered by the White House, it is important to note that the Biden team will implement the policy discussed at such a high level under Tryan. The incoming president and his foreign policy team were to handle the Saudis through the Trump administration.
In the years before Biden and his top officials took office, Saudi Arabia has denounced Trump's lack of action against MBS.

Javed Ali, a longtime national security official during the tenure of both Trump and President Barack Obama, said it was common for departments and agencies to review previously-considered policies when the new administration arrives. “This is especially the case in the first few months of the new administration.”

76 Visa bans on Saudi A Saudi official and the Crown Prince’s personal protective team joined the sanctions against the Rapid Intervention Force. But there was no direct goal of punishing the Crown Prince, who was given a special name at the top of a long-awaited classified intelligence report that allowed Khashoggi’s assassination.

For many, including legislators from both parties, human rights activists and Khashoggi’s former fiance, Biden’s campaign promises to take a tougher stance against Saudi Arabia and create it, “it’s Peria.”

The goal the Biden administration argued last week is now “recovery” with Saudi Arabia, not a “breakdown”.

A senior State Department official said in a statement that “any country that dares to participate in these vague acts should know that their officials – and their immediate family members – may be eligible for this new policy.” “We expect its impact to have a deterrent effect worldwide.”

The Trump administration disagreed, feeling the visa ban would be reactive, a senior Trump official told CNN. The ban was considered “symbolic, ineffective and likely to drive Saudis into Russia.” [and] A Chinese hug, ”the official said.

When former President Donald Trump was criticized for refusing to expel the Crown Prince, known as MBS, for being responsible for Khashoggi’s death, his administration imposed sanctions on 17 Saudis involved.
When the intelligence report came out on February 26, the Biden administration announced “Khashoggi Ban,” and imposed new sanctions in view of the Crown Prince’s protective team and a former senior Saudi intelligence official, Ahmed al-Asiri. But according to administrative officials, manual approvals for MBS were not considered. With the potential to jeopardize U.S. military interests, multiple administration officials said it was never a “viable option” and would be “too complicated.”

In response to the criticism, the Biden administration defended itself by focusing on the initial steps taken against Saudi Arabia, not to go too far against the MBS: US support for the war in Yemen, review of arms sales, and heavy focus on human rights. .

When Biden’s top intelligence official, Avril Haynes, released an undisclosed report on Khashoggi’s assassination, he was doing well based on his promise to publish it to Congress. Exemption was required by law, which was ignored by the Trump administration.

It is still unclear why on the day the long-awaited report was published, the National Intelligence Director’s Office quietly took it down and replaced it with another edition in which three names were removed.

ODNI declined to give a full explanation of why the names were omitted, in addition to saying that their names were not included.

Last week, ODNI sent a classified explanation for the error to Capitol Hill, an official who said he had seen it and who said the three men were in fact linked to Khashogi’s murder.

It was no accident that all three names were on one version of the report, the official said.

ODNI declined to comment on the clarification made to Congress.

The error, which now appears to be a clumsy disclosure of classified information, is more pronounced because the Biden administration said there was no new information in the report and was briefed to Congress a year ago. None of the three names linked to Khashogi’s death have been mentioned before.

One of the three men, identified as Abdullah Mohammed al-Hawiri, is an anti-terrorism official whose brother is the head of Saudi Arabia’s presidency of state security. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.

CNN’s Vivian Salama and Kylie Atwood contributed to the report.

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