As the full extent of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate becomes clearer, the pressure on Western governments to respond in a forceful and unequivocal way to the atrocity is getting louder. Three weeks since Khashoggi’s disappearance, the Trump administration has only just begun retaliating; this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that 21 Saudis implicated in the murder operation have had their visas revoked. Pompeo assured the world that the reprisals will not stop with travel restrictions.

Across the Atlantic, European governments are also feeling pressure from the public to place strong sanctions on Saudi Arabia for what appears to be tactics straight out of “The Godfather.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated publicly that Berlin would no longer sell military equipment to the Saudis under the present situation. This Thursday, the European Parliament passed a resolution urging all European Union members to cut Riyadh off from European-manufactured arms. While the resolution was non-binding and therefore has no legal effect, it still served as a warning sign to the Saudi royal family: after the killing of a journalist, the Kingdom’s credibility and reputation have been severely damaged in the minds of many European politicians.