US President Joe Biden speaks to the Traveling Press after attending a work session with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia at Al-Salaam Palace in Jeddah on July 15, 2022.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday aimed to tout policy progress after several highly critical meetings with Saudi Arabian royalty, but the kingdom’s human rights abuses took on all other topics.
Biden said his team completed “important business” in Jeddah after months of what he described as quiet diplomacy. Among the topics of progress, Saudi Arabia and Israel – which Biden also visited this week – have taken concrete steps toward normalizing relations, according to the president.
Visiting oil-rich Saudi Arabia because high gas prices contribute to low approval ratings at home, Biden also said he discussed oil supplies during the meetings. He pointed to 5G, climate policy and countering China’s influence in the region as topics of discussion.
But Biden’s address from Saudi Arabia came hours after the president Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman punched, who probably ordered the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. His decision to engage with bin Salman casts a shadow on policy progress aimed at showcasing Biden.
US intelligence concluded that the Crown Prince, known as MBS, ordered Khashoggi’s assassination. He has previously denied having a role in the journalist’s dismemberment.
Biden said he raised human rights and the killing of Khashoggi at the beginning of his meeting with the crown prince.
Biden told reporters in Jeddah, “An American president keeping silent on a human rights issue is inconsistent with who we are and who I am.” The president said the crown prince told him he had nothing to do with Khashoggi’s disappearance and his murder.
Biden said he did not regret his 2019 presidential nomination, saying he wanted to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” after Khashoggi’s assassination.
“What happened to Khashoggi was outrageous,” Biden said.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman punches at the arrival of US President Joe Biden at the Al Salman Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on July 15, 2022.
Monkey Alagaloud | Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court | via Reuters
Biden published last week An op-ed in the Washington Post – Khashoggi’s newspaper – justifies his visit to Saudi Arabia.
“From the beginning, my aim was to restructure – but not break – relations with a country that has been a strategic partner for 80 years,” Biden wrote in that article, which noted the once-slain journalist.
“I know many disagree with my decision to visit Saudi Arabia,” the president wrote. “My views on human rights are clear and long-standing, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip, just as they are in Israel and the West Bank. Will be.”
In a statement on Friday, Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan said Biden’s fist “assumes an intimacy and comfort that provides MBS the improbable redemption he is desperately seeking.”
Khashoggi’s fiancé Hatice Cengiz retweeted a photo of the prince, with a message from Khashoggi’s Twitter account: “Hey @POTUS. Is this the accountability you promised for my murder. The next victim of MBS That blood is in your hands.”
Asked to respond to Khashoggi’s fiancee’s tweet, Biden said he was sorry he felt that way.
“I’m sorry she feels that way. I was straight then. I was straight today,” Biden said.
The oil-rich monarchy of Saudi Arabia is a major strategic partner for the US and a top buyer of US-made weapons. That role has protected the kingdom from retaliatory sanctions over Khashoggi’s death and the Saudi-led war in Yemen.