The British government has insisted that it will consider action in response to the death of a Saudi journalist in Turkey, saying those who killed Jamal Khashoggi must be held into account.
The Home Office (the British foreign ministry) said Saturday that it was considering “next steps” after the Saudi government acknowledged Khashoggi was killed in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
“As the Foreign Secretary has said, this was a terrible act and those responsible must be held to account,” said the ministry in a statement, adding, “We are considering the Saudi report and our next steps.”
Britain, a close ally of the Saudi Arabian government and a major arms supplier to the kingdom, had earlier indicated that it would stop short of imposing an arms sale embargo on Riyadh over its role in the disappearance and murder of Khashoggi. Officials had said a ban on British arms sale to the Saudis would enable rivals like China and Russia to fill the gap in the weapons market.
Many rights campaigners called for an outright ban on weapons sale to Saudi Arabia, a country that has been leading a devastating war on its southern neighbor for the past three years.
The opposition Labour Party also announced earlier this week that it would slap the Saudis with arms sanctions if it was in the government.
Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi journalist who had been living in exile in the US since last year, went to Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to collect documents for his forthcoming marriage. No one saw him leaving the facility after that.
The Saudi government announced on Friday that it had made arrests and dismissals at the top levels of its security agencies in connection to Khashoggi’s death.