Biden's embattled National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan travels to meet the Saudi Crown Prince after CIA report blamed HIM for Khashoggi's murder and Biden released 9/11 files
- National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to press for a ceasefire in Yemen
- Sullivan will be the highest-ranking Biden official to visit the kingdom when he makes the trip Monday
- President Joe Biden released a CIA report that held the crown prince responsible for approving the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi
- More recently, Biden green-lit the release of documents pertaining to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks
- Victims' family members hope the documents help with their ongoing lawsuit against Saudi Arabia - the country where 15 of the 19 hijackers were from
- As a candidate Biden said he wished to make the Saudis 'pay the price, and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are'
- Sullivan is being dispatched at a moment with the situation in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, has futher deteriorated
President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will travel to Saudi Arabia Monday to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to press for a ceasefire in Yemen.
Sullivan will be the highest-ranking Biden official to visit the kingdom, as Biden has taken a much different approach to dealing with Saudi Arabia as his predecessor.
While former President Donald Trump bestowed the Saudis with the distinction of the first county he visited as president, President Joe Biden started his relationship with the kingdom by releasing a CIA report that held the crown prince responsible for approving the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
More recently, Biden green-lit the release of documents pertaining to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, which victims' family members hope will help with their ongoing lawsuit against Saudi Arabia - the country where 15 of the 19 hijackers were from.
President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan is expected to travel to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt next week. He'll need to smooth over relations with the Saudis
Biden released a CIA report that held Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (pictured) responsible for approving the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi
The lawsuit alleges that the Saudi government knowingly provided support to the hijackers.
While the first document drop - which came on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 - had significant redactions, it showed that FBI officials were skeptical of claims from Saudi subjects that run-ins with the hijackers in the United States prior to the attacks were accidental.
Leaders of the 9/11 family groups applauded the move.
'Today marks the moment when the Saudis cannot rely on the U.S. government from hiding the truth about 9/11,' said Brett Eagleson, whose father was killed in the World Trade Center attack.
Four days before the document release, the Saudi government released a statement of innocence.
9/11 families are suing Saudi Arabia over the 2001 terror attacks and hope documents being released by the Biden administration will help them prove a link between the Saudi hijackers and Saudi government officials
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Biden's State Department also issued visa restrictions against 76 Saudis 'believed to have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas' in a ban named after the late Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi (pictured)
'Previous declassification of materials relating to the September 11 attacks ... only have confirmed the 9/11 Commission's finding that Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with this terrible crime,' said the Saudi Embassy in the U.S. 'It is lamentable that such false and malicious claims persist.'
While Saudi's Prince Salman was known to have a cozy relationship with White House aide and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, on the campaign trail Biden pledged to be less friendly toward the Saudis.
Biden said he wished to make the Saudis 'pay the price, and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are,' adding that there is 'very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.'
Beyond connecting the crown prince to the Khashoggi murder, Biden's State Department issued visa restrictions against 76 Saudis 'believed to have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas' under what' being labeled the 'Khashoggi ban.'
Biden also stopped an arms deal with the Saudis over human rights violations in Yemen.
Biden, however, did call the country's ailing King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud in February, about a month into his administration .
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cancelled a planned trip to the kingdom, citing 'scheduling issues.'
The Associated Press reported that Sullivan was expected to meet the crown prince and deputy defense minster Khalid bin Salman, his brother.
Sullivan will also travel to the United Arab Emirates, an ally to Saudi in the war with Yemen.
Sullivan is being dispatched at a moment when the situation in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, has further deteriorated.
Fighting has intensified in the key city of Marib, as Iran-backed rebels have sought to oust the Saudi-backed government from the oil-rich city in the country's north.
International efforts to end the war have been fruitless.
Tim Lenderking, the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, called out the Houthis in July for continuing 'to refuse to engage meaningfully on a cease-fire and political talks.' Saudi Arabia offered a cease-fire proposal to Yemen´s Houthi rebels earlier this year as it looked to rehabilitate its image with the Biden administration.
The Saudis have drawn international criticism for airstrikes killing civilians and embargoes exacerbating hunger in a nation on the brink of famine.
The new U.N. special envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, recently declared that the country is 'stuck in an indefinite state of war' and resuming negotiations to end the more than six-year conflict won´t be easy.
Yemen's war began in September 2014, when the Iranian-backed Houthis seized Sanaa and began a march south to try to seize the entire country. Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and other countries, entered the war alongside Yemen´s internationally recognized government in March 2015.
The U.S. sold bombs and fighter jets to Saudi Arabia that the kingdom later used in strikes on Yemen that also killed civilians.
The Obama administration in 2015 initially offered U.S. targeting assistance to Saudi Arabia´s command-and-control operations that was supposed to minimize civilian casualties in airstrikes. It didn´t, and Obama ultimately cut back on the program.
Under President Donald Trump, targeting assistance continued although his administration later stopped U.S. refueling operations for Saudi jets.
Biden announced weeks into his administration that he was ending all American support for 'offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.' But there has been little progress on the ground in resolving what the United Nations says is the world´s worst humanitarian crisis.
White House officials are hopeful that the appointment of Grundberg will bring a new dynamic and put pressure on all sides to bring an end to the conflict, according to two senior administration officials.
Sullivan is being joined for the talks with the Saudis and the UAE by Lenderking and NSC senior director for the Middle East Brett McGurk.
The high-level White House push comes after Lenderking traveled to Saudi Arabia and Oman, which has pressed for an end to the war.
In addition, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had talks with his counterpart members of the Gulf Cooperation Council on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly.
Sullivan's visit to Saudi Arabia also comes as the administration is looking for ways to resurrect the Iran nuclear deal.
The Saudis and the UAE fiercely oppose returning to the deal with Iran that was originally brokered in 2015 by the Obama administration only to be scrapped by Trump in 2018.
Addressing the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, Iran´s new foreign minister Hossain Amir Abdollah said the country will return to nuclear negotiations in Vienna 'very soon.'
But he accused the Biden administration of sending contradictory messages by saying it wants to rejoin the pact while slapping new sanctions on Tehran and not taking 'an iota of positive action.'
Biden and his team have made a U.S. return to the deal - to which Britain, France, Russia, China, Germany and Iran are signatories - one of their top foreign policy priorities.
But the U.S. has made limited headway in indirect talks, and Tehran has bristled at Biden administration officials' call for a 'longer and stronger' deal than the original, which expires at the end of 2030.
The murder of Jamal Khashoggi: Key moments surrounding the writer's disappearance and death
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote critically of the kingdom's policies and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say a 15-men team tortured, killed and dismembered the writer, while Saudi Arabia says he died in a 'fistfight.'
Here are some key moments in the slaying of the Washington Post columnist:
BEFORE HIS DISAPPEARANCE
September 2017: The Post publishes the first column by Khashoggi in its newspaper, in which the former royal court insider and longtime journalist writes about going into a self-imposed exile in the U.S. over the rise of Prince Mohammed. His following columns criticize the prince and the kingdom's direction.
September 28, 2018: Over a year after the Post published his first column, Khashoggi visits the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, seeking documents in order to get married. He's later told to return October 2, his fiancee Hatice Cengiz says. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a plan or a 'road map' to kill Khashoggi was devised in Saudi Arabia during this time.
September 29: Khashoggi travels to London and speaks at a conference.
October 1: Khashoggi returns to Istanbul. At around 4.30pm, a three-person Saudi team arrives in Istanbul on a scheduled flight, checks in to their hotels then visits the consulate, according to Erdogan. The Turkish president says another group of officials from the consulate travel to a forest in Istanbul's outskirts and to the nearby city of Yalova on a 'reconnaissance' trip.
Jamal Khashoggi (right) arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2
THE DAY OF HIS DISAPPEARANCE
3.28am, October 2: A private jet arrives at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport carrying some members of what Turkish media will refer to as a 15-member Saudi 'assassination squad.' Other members of the team arrive by two commercial flights in the afternoon. Erdogan says the team includes Saudi security and intelligence officials and a forensics expert. They meet at the Saudi Consulate. One of the first things they do is to dismantle a hard disk connected to the consulate's camera system, the president says.
11.50am: Khashoggi is called to confirm his appointment at the consulate later that day, Erdogan says.
1.14pm: Surveillance footage later leaked to Turkish media shows Khashoggi walking into the main entrance of the Saudi Consulate. No footage made public ever shows him leaving. His fiancee waits outside, pacing for hours.
3.07pm: Surveillance footage shows vehicles with diplomatic license plates leaving the Saudi Consulate for the consul general's home some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away.
5.50pm: Khashoggi's fiancee alerts authorities, saying he may have been forcibly detained inside the consulate or that something bad may have happened to him, according to Erdogan.
7pm: A private plane from Saudi Arabia carries six members of the alleged Saudi squad from Istanbul to Cairo, the next day returning to Riyadh.
11pm: Seven members of the alleged Saudi squad leave on another private jet to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which the next day returns to Riyadh. Two others leave by commercial flights.
Erdogan confirms reports that a 'body double' - a man wearing Khashoggi's clothes, glasses and a beard - leaves the consulate building for Riyadh with another person on a scheduled flight later that day.
CCTV images showed a a private jet alleged to have been used by a group of Saudi men suspected of being involved in Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death
INITIAL REACTION
October 3: Khashoggi's fiancee and the Post go public with his disappearance. Saudi Arabia says Khashoggi visited the consulate and exited shortly thereafter. Turkish officials suggest Khashoggi might still be in the consulate. Prince Mohammed tells Bloomberg: 'We have nothing to hide.'
October 4: Saudi Arabia says on its state-run news agency that the consulate is carrying out 'follow-up procedures and coordination with the Turkish local authorities to uncover the circumstances of the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after he left the consulate building.'
October 5: The Post prints a blank column in its newspaper in solidarity with Khashoggi, headlined: 'A missing voice.'
October 6: The Post, citing anonymous Turkish officials, reports Khashoggi may have been killed in the consulate in a 'preplanned murder' by a Saudi team.
October 7: A friend of Khashoggi tells the AP that officials told him the writer was killed at the consulate. The consulate rejects what it calls 'baseless allegations.'
October 8: Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Turkey is summoned over Khashoggi's disappearance and alleged killing.
LEAKED FOOTAGE
October 9: Turkey says it will search the Saudi Consulate as a picture of Khashoggi walking into the diplomatic post surfaces.
October 10: Surveillance footage is leaked of Khashoggi and the alleged Saudi squad that killed him. Khashoggi's fiancee asks President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for help.
October 11: Turkish media describes Saudi squad as including royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert. Trump calls Khashoggi's disappearance a 'bad situation' and promises to get to the bottom of it.
October 12: Trump again pledges to find out what happened to Khashoggi.
October 13: A pro-government newspaper reports that Turkish officials have an audio recording of Khashoggi's alleged killing from his Apple Watch, but details in the report come into question.
INTERNATIONAL UPROAR
October 14: Trump says that 'we're going to get to the bottom of it, and there will be severe punishment' if Saudi Arabia is involved. The kingdom responds with a blistering attack against those who threaten it, as the manager of a Saudi-owned satellite news channel suggests the country could retaliate through its oil exports. The Saudi stock exchange plunges as much as 7 percent at one point.
Khashoggi (pictured), went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
October 15: A Turkish forensics team enters and searches the Saudi Consulate, an extraordinary development as such diplomatic posts are considered sovereign soil. Trump suggests after a call with Saudi King Salman that 'rogue killers' could be responsible for Khashoggi's alleged slaying. Trump says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to the Mideast over the case. Meanwhile, business leaders say they won't attend an economic summit in the kingdom that's the brainchild of Prince Mohammed.
October 16: A high-level Turkish official tells the AP that 'certain evidence' was found in the Saudi Consulate proving Khashoggi was killed there. Pompeo arrives for meetings in Saudi Arabia with King Salman and Prince Mohammed. Meanwhile, Trump compares the case to the appointment of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, saying: 'Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent.'
October 17: Pompeo meets with Turkey's president and foreign minister in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Turkish police search the official residence of Saudi Arabia's consul general in Istanbul and conduct a second sweep of the consulate.
October 18: A leaked surveillance photograph shows a member of Prince Mohammed's entourage walked into the consulate just before Khashoggi vanished there.
October 20: Saudi Arabia for the first time acknowledges Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, claiming he was slain in a 'fistfight.' The claim draws immediate skepticism from the kingdom's Western allies, particularly in the U.S. Congress.
October 22: A report says a member of Prince Mohammed's entourage made four calls to the royal's office around the time Khashoggi was killed. Police search a vehicle belonging to the Saudi consulate parked at an underground garage in Istanbul.
CCTV emerges showing a Saudi intelligence officer dressed in a fake beard and Jamal Khashoggi's clothes and glasses on the day he went missing.
October 23: Erdogan says Saudi officials murdered Khashoggi after plotting his death for days, demanding that Saudi Arabia reveal the identities of all involved.
October 25: Changing their story again, Saudi prosecutors say Khashoggi's killing was a premeditated crime.
November 2: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims the order to kill Khashoggi came from the highest levels of the Saudi government. Earlier the same day, Yasin Aktay, a ruling party adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he believed the body had to have been dissolved in acid.
November 4: Khashoggi's sons Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi issue appeal for his remains to be returned so that he may be buried in Saudi Arabia.
November 10: President Erdogan says Turkey gave the audio recordings linked to the murder to 'Saudi Arabia, to Washington, to the Germans, to the French, to the British'.
November 13: Turkish media reports that the luggage carried by the Saudi 'hit squad' included scissors, defibrillators and syringes that may have been used against Khashoggi.
November 15: Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor announces that he is seeking the death penalty for five out of 11 suspects charged in the murder. Shalaan al-Shalaan said the person who had ordered the killing was the head of the negotiating team sent to repatriate him, and exonerated Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. On the same day, the U.S. Treasury announces sanctions against 17 Saudi officials, including the Consul General in Turkey, Mohammed Alotaibi.
November 16: A CIA assessment reported in the Washington Post finds that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination.
November 18: Germany bans 18 Saudi nationals believed to be connected to the murder from entering Europe's border-free Schengen zone. Berlin also announces it has as halted previously approved arms exports to Saudi Arabia amid the fallout.
