“Unless the Saudi kingdom understands that civilized countries around the world are going to reject this conduct and make sure they are going to pay a price for it, they are going to continue doing it,” said Sen. Dick Durbin. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo Congress Durbin: Expel Saudi ambassador from U.S.

Sen. Dick Durbin said Sunday that the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. should be immediately expelled following the kingdom’s acknowledgment that dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi was likely killed.

“We ought to formally expel the Saudi ambassador from the United States until there is a completion of a third-party investigation into the kidnap, murder and God-knows-what-followed that occurred in Istanbul,” said Durbin of Illinois, the second-highest-ranking Democratic senator, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press.“ “We should call on our allies to do the same.”


“Unless the Saudi kingdom understands that civilized countries around the world are going to reject this conduct and make sure they are going to pay a price for it, they are going to continue doing it,” Durbin said. “The crown prince has his fingerprints all over this.”

Saudi Arabia confirmed Saturday for the first time that Khashoggi died in the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul earlier this month, claiming that the Washington Post columnist‘s death came after an argument and a “fist fight” with men in the facility.

The Arab state, which originally insisted Khashoggi had left its consulate alive, also has arrested 18 Saudi nationals suspected of involvement in Khashoggi’s death, according to its Foreign Ministry. Four top Saudi intelligence officials and a top royal adviser have been fired, apparently because of their connection to the episode.

Khashoggi walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2; he was not seen alive after that. When Saudi Arabia subsequently said that he left on his own, Turkey pushed back on that narrative, based on its surveillance.

