The news has been circulating in newsrooms for days, but the White House only confirmed on Tuesday that US President Joe Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia next month (July 13-16), where he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was directly implicated in the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
This trip to the Middle East will first take President Biden to Israel, where he will fly directly to the port city of Jeddah. The President expects to lay out his positive outlook for U.S. engagement in the region in the coming months and years.White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement announcing the visit.
” The President welcomes this important visit to Saudi Arabia, which has been a strategic partner of the United States for nearly eight decades. “
The fact that the meetings are taking place in Jeddah, and not in Riyadh, the capital, can be seen as a symbolic demotion from a state visit officer. The last U.S. president to visit Jeddah, the kingdom’s second largest city and commercial center, was President George HW Bush in 1990.
However, according to a senior U.S. administration official quoted by CNN, Mr. Biden should Look the powerful Mohammed bin Salman as part of his engagement with Saudi leaders, although it is not yet clear whether this was a one-on-one meeting or something less formal.
Joe Biden is trying to get the Saudis to increase their oil production, to stop or at least slow down rising fuel prices and inflation in the United States a few months before the midterm elections.
The increase in fuel prices, which hit the national average of $ 5 per gallon over the weekend, became the hottest discussion in the White House and became a political handicap for the president.
Embarrassing to the White House
President Biden’s meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince, who is considered the de facto head of state, will signal a change in American diplomacy.
President Biden reportedly approved the trip after some hesitation. He promised to pay Saudi Arabia for its role in the gruesome assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
During the campaign for the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden claimed that the 2018 assassination and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi – a Saudi refugee journalist in the United States critical of Saudi authorities, had made Saudi Arabia a nation. pariah.
U.S. intelligence agencies have identified the crown prince as the mastermind behind the murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
Even before it was officially announced, this trip sparked reaction among the president’s allies, elected Democrats and human rights defenders.
I have mixed feelings about it, and if the president calls me, I’ll say, ‘Mr. President, you cannot trust these people. Their standards are not ours, their values are not ours.Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told CNN on Tuesday.
Mr. Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, openly accused Mr. Biden’s loss of his moral sense as news of his journey spread.
President Biden’s decision to meet with Prince bin Salman is terribly annoying to me and to supporters of freedom and justice everywhere.did he say.
There is no punishment against the crown prince
After the publication of an intelligence report, the US government announced financial sanctions against General Assiri and against the Rapid Reaction Force, an elite unit responsible for protecting the prince and overseen by Saud al-Qahtani. This unit was presented by Washington as more involved in the murder.
A ban on entry into the United States was also announced against 76 Saudis under a new rule called the “Khashoggi ban” (Khashoggi ban), aimed at anyone accused of attacking, on behalf of the authorities in their country. . , to dissidents or journalists abroad.
Radio Canada
Source: Radio-Canada
