One month ahead of US President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the District of Columbia (DC) is renaming the street in front of the Saudi Arabian embassy Jamal Khashoggi Way, trolling Riyadh for its role in the killing of the dissident Saudi Arabian activist and journalist in 2018.
With members of the Council of the District of Columbia in attendance, a Jamal Khashoggi Way sign was unveiled directly in front of the embassy’s main entrance.
“We intend to remind the people who are hiding behind these doors ... that we hold them responsible and we will hold them accountable for the murder of our friend,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN, the pro-Arab world democracy organization founded by Khashoggi prior to his death.
Photo: AP
Whitson also criticized what she called the “shameless capitulation” of the Biden administration for seeking improved relations with the Saudi Arabian government and scheduling an official presidential visit to the kingdom.
Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi Arabian journalist and Washington Post columnist, entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 2, 2018, seeking the necessary documentation for a planned marriage with his fiancee waiting outside for him. The 59-year-old never emerged.
The Saudi Arabian government initially denied any wrongdoing, but under mounting international pressure, Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate in what it characterized as a repatriation effort gone wrong. The CIA later released a report concluding that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered on the orders of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
The Saudi Arabian regime has consistently denied that connection. Several lower-level Saudi Arabian officials and agents received jail sentences over the killing.
The DC Council late last year unanimously voted to rename a one-block stretch for Khashoggi.
“I’m very proud that we did this,” DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson said. “The Saudi government cannot forget what happend, what it did. This is a constant reminder.”
The renaming is ceremonial, as signified by the brown street sign instead of the usual green, and it will not impact the embassy’s mailing address. However, the sign will remain indefinitely. An e-mail to the Saudi Arabian embassy seeking comment did not receive a response.
Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, could not attend the ceremony, but a statement from her was read aloud. In it, she bitterly criticized the Biden administration for “putting oil over principles and expediency over principles.”
Cengiz also directly requested of Biden, when he meets with the crown prince: “Can you at least ask: ‘Where is Jamal’s body?”’
White House press secretary Karine Jean Pierre would not say whether Biden would raise the issue of Khashoggi’s murder when he meets with the crown prince next month.
“The president is a straight shooter. This is not something that he’s afraid to talk about,” she said.
However, she did not confirm if the killing would be a topic of conversation.
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