US hosts high-level Saudi visit after Khashoggi killing

Top Biden administration officials on July 6 hosted a brother to Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in the highest-level such visit known since the U.S. made public intelligence findings linking the crown prince to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Biden administration did not publicly disclose the visit by Prince Khalid bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's deputy defense minister, in advance. President Joe Biden had pledged to make a "pariah" of the kingdom's crown prince during his presidential campaign over Khashoggi's killing and other abuses, but his administration has instead emphasized U.S. strategic interests with Saudi Arabia.

The high-level sessions with Prince Khalid, a younger brother and confidant to Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince, renewed complaints that the administration was giving the Saudis a pass in the Khashoggi killing, given that nation's strategic importance as a Middle East power and a top oil producer.

"U.S. still has their back, no matter how awfully they terrorize their citizens," Sarah Leah Whitson, who leads the Arab rights group Democracy for the Arab World, tweeted on July 6 in a criticism of Biden administration policy.

Biden has pledged a foreign policy that follows human rights and American values. But after the February release of the U.S. findings on Mohammed bin Salman's role in Khashoggi's death, Biden told ABC News there was no precedent for the U.S. punishing a top official of a country with which it has a partnership.

Khalid bin Salman met briefly at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a meeting that was not yet made...