US Senator Dick Durbin on Thursday said the United States should expel Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Khalid bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2018) US Senator Dick Durbin on Thursday said the United States should expel Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Khalid bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi."I said it months ago and I will say it again: we should formally expel the Saudi Ambassador to the United States given the Crown Prince's direct involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Jamal Khashoggi," Durbin said.
Durbin first called for the ambassador's expulsion in September after Khashoggi disappeared in Istanbul, but his latest remarks come after he and a small number of other senators were briefed by CIA Director Gina Haspel on the killing.
After the briefing by Haspel on Tuesday, Durbin said he was more convinced than ever before that the US administration needed to send a strong response to the killing.
In Thursday's statement, Durbin said the Trump administration needs to stop "bending to the will of autocrats and dictators" and show that the United States does not condone these types of actions.
Khashoggi went missing during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Saudi Arabia initially insisted that the journalist left the consulate unharmed, but later admitted that he was killed and dismembered on the premises. The kingdom has insisted that the killing was a rogue operation in which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was not involved.
However multiple US Senators, including Durbin, who attended Haspel's briefing have said the complicity of Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman in the murder is overwhelmingly supported by the evidence in the case.
Saudi Ambassador Prince Khalid, who is also the brother of the crown prince, reportedly returned to the United States on Wednesday for the first time since the October 2 killing.
Prince Khalid landed at Dulles International Airport early Wednesday morning ahead of the funeral of former US President George H.W. Bush, NBC news reported, citing unnamed sources.
