[curious_cat_163]

> "This is a legal determination made by the State Department under longstanding and well-established principles of customary international law," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a written statement.

...

> "It has nothing to do with the merits of the case."

Pretty strange that this is how the international law works in 2022. We have ways to go, I suppose.

FWIW. This also looks like a pretty convenient loophole for the Biden administration to 'normalize' the relationships with the KSA and MBS, in particular. They'll keep calling him names like murderer and say that our hands are tied because of the international law.