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According to the US secret services, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed was the mastermind behind the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
A report released Friday by the office of Intelligence Coordinator Avril Haines said the heir to the throne presumably approved the operation aimed at either capturing or killing Khashoggi.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry categorically rejected this.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced entry restrictions against 76 Saudi citizens.
However, there were no concrete punitive measures against Mohammed himself.
Crown Prince Mohammed has long been considered by many to be the backer of the internationally strongly condemned murder of his critic Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. In this respect, the findings from the intelligence reports, some of which had already leaked, came as no great surprise.
In 2019, the UN investigator in the case, human rights expert Agnès Callamard, also recommended an investigation into the possible involvement of the Saudi crown prince.
And US President Joe Biden had declared in the election campaign that he wanted to make Saudi Arabia a pariah state because of the fall.
After taking office, however, Biden had rowed back again.
His foreign minister, Blinken, defended himself on Friday for the US not to take any tougher action against the crown prince, despite intelligence.
You don't want to break off relationships with such a strategic partner, you just want to establish new ones, he said.
"I think we also have to understand that this is bigger than an individual."
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According to Blinken, the visa restrictions were directed against Saudis who are targeting dissidents.
These should not be allowed to step on American soil, he said.
No names were given.
The US Treasury Department announced its own sanctions against a former Saudi intelligence agent, Ahmad Hassan Mohammed al-Asiri, who is said to have headed the operation against Khashoggi.
The conclusion that the 35-year-old Mohammed was responsible for the brutal killing of Khashoggi was drawn by the secret services based on the fact that the Crown Prince had had complete control over secret service operations since 2017.
It is very unlikely that an operation like the one against Khashoggi would have taken place without his consent, the report said.
In addition, one of his closest advisers, Saud al-Kahtani, and several of his bodyguards were also involved.
Khashoggi had gone to the consulate in Istanbul to collect documents for his wedding.
In the building he was killed by 15 Saudi security and intelligence officers who were waiting for him.
Surveillance cameras had filmed where Khashoggi and his alleged murderers were in the hours before the killing.
A Turkish bug in the consulate recorded the murder.
Among other things, the sound of a saw is said to be heard in the recordings, which is said to have been used to cut Khashoggi's body.
The body parts have not yet been found.
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Saudi Arabia initially denied murder, then admitted that the journalist was killed in a runaway secret service operation without Riyadh's consent.
Mohammed said in 2019 that he was responsible for the act insofar as it happened within his sphere of influence, but he did not order it.
Before the report was published, Biden had spoken to Muhammad's father, King Salman, on the phone on Thursday.
In a White House summary of the phone call, no information was given on the Khashoggi case.
Biden and Salman spoke about the long partnership between the two countries.
The state-run Saudi news agency SPA also did not mention Khashoggi in its report on the exchange.