US Revoking Visas of Saudis Responsible for Killing Khashoggi

Pompeo: US will not tolerate action to silence a journalist

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed that the US has begun punitive actions against Saudi Arabia for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the US would not tolerate “this kind of ruthless action to silence Mr. Khashoggi, a journalist, through violence.”

To that end, the US has revoked the visas of a number of Saudi officials who they believe were responsible for the murder of Khashoggi, and are in the process of exploring sanctions against them.

The State Department has so far not detailed exactly how many visas have been revoked, nor who had lost them. Pompeo said he didn’t have anything to share with the media about “particular data sets,” but said that the current actions are not going to be the full extent of what the US does.

President Trump has said the US has a number of options for punishing the Saudis, but has been vague on what those are. He has, however, been clear that he is not considering cancelling massive US arms sales to the country, though many in Congress are pushing for the US to do so.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.