From the BBC:
“Saudi
Arabia: Biden raised Khashoggi murder with crown prince”
(US President
Joe Biden (left) fist-bumps Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)
US President
Joe Biden says he raised the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a
meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Mr Biden is in Saudi
Arabia to rebuild relations, having previously promised to make the country a
"pariah" over its human rights record. He said he had made it clear
the killing in 2018 was "vitally important to me and the United
States". But he also said the two countries reached agreements on other
issues. Mr Biden's visit has been criticised as validating the Saudi government
following the murder of the US-based Saudi dissident journalist Khashoggi in
October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman was accused by US intelligence agencies of approving the
murder. The prince has always denied the allegations, and Saudi prosecutors
blamed "rogue" Saudi agents. "With respect to the murder of
Khashoggi, I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I
thought of it at the time and what I think of it now," Mr Biden said in a
press briefing after Friday's meeting. "I said very straightforwardly,
'for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights is
inconsistent with who we are and who I am. I'll always stand up for our
values'." Mr Biden said the crown prince claimed he was "not
personally responsible" for the death, the Associated Press reported.
"I indicated I thought he was," the president said he replied.
Prior to the
meeting Mr Biden was pictured fist-bumping the crown prince, indicating an
apparent warming of relations between the two countries. But Khashoggi's
fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, criticised the president's actions. Tweeting a photo of
the two men along with the words she imagined her fiancé would have said, she
wrote: "Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood
of MBS's next victim is on your hands." Meanwhile, the publisher and CEO
of the Washington Post, Fred Ryan, said "the fist bump between President
Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake - it was shameful. It
projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted
redemption he has been desperately seeking." Khashoggi was a columnist for
the Washington Post. Aside from Khashoggi's murder, President Biden said he and
his Saudi counterpart had discussed energy and that he expected to see Saudi
Arabia, a major oil producer, take "further steps" to stabilise the
market in the coming weeks. Defending Mr Biden's actions, US Democratic
Congressman Brad Sherman told the BBC that Saudi Arabia increasing its supply
of oil to the market would save lives. "The price of oil means people die
in poor countries. It raises the price of food and fertiliser and it means
people die by the hundreds of thousands, not just from starvation but also from
the disease the malnourished tend to acquire," he said. "So it's very
easy for Mrs Khashoggi [Hatice Cengiz] can say 'don't worry about those
hundreds of thousands of people who will die, avenge my fiance'. You've got to
be adults here."
Mr Biden also
announced Saudi Arabia would open its airspace to aircraft flying to and from
Israel, which was previously banned.
^ This is
Biden acting tough. Shakes my head. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.