No ‘Khashoggi ban’: Biden team criticized for hosting MBS brother

Khalid bid Salman is highest ranking Saudi to visit Washington since the US said MBS ordered Khashoggi’s murder.

The United States Biden administration is facing criticism from rights groups and anti-war advocates for its welcome of Saudi Arabia Prince Khalid bin Salman to Washington, DC, for high-level meetings this week. Prince Khalid bin Salman is the brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS. Over July 6-7, the prince met with US President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley and other senior US officials. MBS was formally identified earlier this year by US intelligence agencies as having sanctioned the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi hit squad in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018. As a presidential candidate in 2020, Joe Biden had denounced Khashoggi’s assassination and pledged Saudi Arabia would be a “pariah”.