The United States must stand up against Saudi Arabia after the "barbaric act" of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi's murder, according to former Bush administration Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns.
"Sometimes America needs to stand up and say the right thing and do the right thing and lead the rest of the world to a moral judgment – and the judgment here has to be: This was a barbaric act by the Saudis, and we have to disassociate ourselves from it," former Amb. Burns told "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y.
". . . The Saudis are widely viewed around the world as one of the closest friends of America. We don't want to be associated with a brutal murder of an innocent person, a journalist."
Behind condemnation, Saudi Arabia must pay "a price" in terms of sanctions put forth by the United States as the world leader, Burns told host John Catsimatidis.
"We can't end our relationship with Saudi Arabia, but on the other side, John, we are a democracy, we believe in justice," Burns added. "This was a great crime committed, most probably by the Saudis government. At some point the United States government has to say, 'We condemn this murder. There is going to be some kind of sanction put on Saudi Arabia as a price they have to pay, a penalty they have to pay.'"
It should not be forgotten either, Burns said, Khashoggi was a permanent U.S. resident who could have become a citizen.
"We have some obligation to his children and to his fiancée to try to achieve justice here, a whole accounting of what happened, an admission of what happened, and some kind of repudiation for that act by the United States," Burns said.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.