According to US Vice President Joe Biden, he brought up the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the beginning of a meeting with senior Saudi officials in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Biden stated in a press conference on Friday that he also stressed the need for political reform and human rights during the meeting.As I always do, Biden stated that the subject of human rights was extremely important to both himself and the United States. I brought up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the beginning of the discussion, making it plain what I thought of it then and how I feel about it now.
A US president cannot remain "quiet on a matter of human rights," he continued.
The Saudi crown prince (MBS), whom US intelligence services concluded was responsible for Khashoggi's death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, was greeted by Biden with a fist bump when he arrived for the meetings, which drew criticism earlier in the day.
According to Fred Ryan, owner of the Washington Post newspaper where Khashoggi worked at the time of his death, "It projected a degree of closeness and comfort that offers to MBS the unjustified redemption he has been sorely seeking." The Committee to Project Journalists also expressed its "appalling" disapproval of Biden's "failure" to hold the crown prince responsible.In his campaign for president in 2019, Biden declared the monarchy a "pariah" over the assassination of the journalist, and his office first declared that he would only communicate with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz.According to Kimberly Halkett of Al Jazeera, Biden's remarks to reporters were an attempt to "perform damage management" following criticism of his visit. He was remediating what was obviously a little bit of a PR disaster, she remarked.
The US president's visit to Saudi Arabia comes as efforts are made to mend relations between Washington and Riyadh and as the world struggles with skyrocketing oil prices associated with the conflict in Ukraine. One of the biggest oil producers in the world is Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has asserted that Khashoggi's murder was an independent operation that didn't have the consent or knowledge of senior officials, including MBS. It claims to have tried and found guilty those responsible for the murder while simultaneously rejecting the conclusions reached by US intelligence agencies.Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, reaffirmed the kingdom's "abhorrence" of the murder and called it a horrifying act in a piece published in the US magazine Politico on Thursday. However, she added that the death cannot be used to define US-Saudi relations.At the airport in Jeddah, the Saudis gave Biden a muted welcome without any of the pomp and circumstance that surrounded his stop this week in Israel. Prince Khalid bin Faisal, the governor of Mecca, and the Saudi ambassador to the US welcomed Biden.US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One prior to Biden's arrival that during his discussions in Saudi Arabia, Biden would "clearly and substantively" set out his vision for Washington's participation in the Middle East.
According to Sullivan, "He's determined to make sure that there isn't a Middle East power vacuum for China and Russia to fill, that American leadership and engagement will be a feature of US policy in this region, and that we intend to play a critical role in this strategically important region on a regular basis.
At the royal palace in Jeddah, Biden met with Saudi King Salman. After that, the US president and his staff met with MBS and Saudi ministers for a working session.According to experts, energy concerns led Biden to visit the monarchy.
The US wants Saudi Arabia and its OPEC allies to increase oil production in order to assist lower the high price of gasoline and lower the highest US inflation rate in 40 years.
On Saturday, Biden will attend a summit in Jeddah where he will have a larger gathering of Arab leaders.However, a US official stated to Reuters ahead of the trip that Washington did not anticipate Riyadh to instantly increase oil production and was instead waiting for the results of the upcoming OPEC+ meeting on August 3.
The possible impacts of Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia on the energy market would not be noticed "for another couple of weeks," he said, noting that oil prices had been falling since before his travel to the Middle East.
Since the majority of producers are producing at maximum capacity, OPEC's spare capacity is running low. It's uncertain how quickly and how much more supply Saudi Arabia could provide to the market.
Last month, OPEC+ decided to increase output objectives for August by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd), halting the unprecedented production restrictions that were implemented during the height of the pandemic to combat plummeting demand."Important business"
The US president also listed a number of deals that he claimed were formalized at Friday's meetings between US and Saudi officials, referring to them as "major business."
He cited agreements that would permit Israeli flights into Saudi airspace, hand over control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia from Egypt, and fund infrastructure and sustainable energy initiatives.In a previous statement regarding the airspace agreement, Biden had said, "It is finally a reality thanks to months of sustained diplomacy between my administration and Saudi Arabia.
This agreement comes after years of de facto reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Israel. In accordance with a series of agreements known as the Abraham Accords, which were mediated by the US, Riyadh did not object when the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain took steps to normalize relations with Israel two years ago.
The Saudi ambassador to Washington stated that in order to combat the "image of chaos advocated by Iran," US-Saudi efforts to maintain peace and security should concentrate on fostering cooperation and "reinforcing a rules-based system."
Biden and interim Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint declaration to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons during Biden's visit to Israel. Tehran, which denies pursuing such weapons and has criticized the US-Israeli declaration, has.
[zombify_post]
0 Comments