There's 'absolutely no smoking gun' in the US report into Jamal Khashoggi's killing, but its publication could shake up strategic calculations in the Middle East.
From the observation that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman controls substantive decision-making in Saudi Arabia, to the fact that most of the kill squad were members of his security entourage, there's little in the United States assessment of Jamal Khashoggi's murder that was not already known to observers.
But the release of the report, along with growing vocal opposition to the Yemen war and President Joe Biden's insistence on speaking with King Salman instead of the young MBS, signals a new era in US-Saudi relations — one that could change strategic calculations in the Middle East.
"There is very much a contingent in Washington that not only wants to sanction MBS because they think he's a danger, but to deter other tyrants from thinking they can get away with murder", said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now, an organisation founded by Khashoggi before his death.
"There is also a contingent of people who want to re-evaluate the US relationship with Saudi Arabia with a big question mark of what we get out of it", she said. "Then there are others who are tied to business as usual with narrow blinkers who think that it might be unrealistic to punish MBS".
