President Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order designed to alert US citizens of elevated risk of wrongful detention in certain countries and to punish foreign officials responsible — but Saudi Arabia won’t be on the list despite holding at least four US citizens against their will.

The order allows for sanctions against foreign authorities and will establish a new system in which a country is labeled with a “D” for detention if they are known as risky destinations for Americans.

But only six countries made the initial list — Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.

“We definitely take extremely seriously our commitment to inform US citizens living and traveling abroad of potential risks,” a Biden administration official told reporters.

The official insisted that “our travel advice is apolitical, fact-based and transparent.”

The families of four US citizens held in Saudi Arabia worked for months with the American government to win their freedom, but were dismayed when Biden left the kingdom Saturday without them while instead touting potential new oil production amid high gas prices.

Each of the four Americans stuck in Saudi Arabia is believed to face no criminal charges amid Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s broad crackdown on potential political rivals and the country’s Shia Muslim minority.

One of the detainees, a 74-year-old businessman, has been jailed without charges since November, possibly over tweeted government criticism, according to his family. The others aren’t in jail and aren’t believed to face criminal charges, but also aren’t allowed to leave the country.

Biden visited Saudi Arabia on Friday and Saturday as high gas prices linked to the nearly five-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine contributed to the worst inflation since 1981, sending his approval rating as low as 30%. Biden’s rapprochement with the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, followed his earlier attempts to sideline him over his role in the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

The new executive order, which Biden is expected to sign in private, may be an attempt by the Biden administration to show it’s doing something in response to Russia’s detention of professional basketball player Brittney Griner, who pleaded guilty this month to possessing a small amount of hashish oil when she was detained at an airport in February.

The White House said this month that Griner is “wrongfully detained.”

Asked about how the order might help Griner, an official told reporters it “directs those across the executive branch to share consistent and accurate information with the families of those who are deemed wrongfully detained to ensure that they receive support and assistance throughout the ordeal and to work with parts of our government to try to impose costs on those responsible.”

In addition to Saudi Arabia, some other countries known for detaining US citizens on flimsy factual grounds, such as Egypt and Turkey, were left off Biden’s bad list, potentially because they partner with the US on other foreign policy objectives.

“As this authority gets implemented, it will, we hope, have a couple of effects. One is to impose consequences and those who’ve been part of this just abominable, inhumane practice and in so doing to generate over time a deterrent from others becoming part of that practice as well,” the US official said.