Joe Biden appeared on Friday to downplay the importance of his controversial upcoming meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia by insisting it would take place in an international setting.
I will not meet at MBS. I am going to an international conference where he will participateinsisted on qualifying the president of America before boarding the helicopter that would take him to his villa on the ocean for the weekend.
Its convoluted formula shows the embarrassment of Mr. Biden, knowing that his visit scheduled for mid-July to the oil kingdom will provide the prince’s international rehabilitation, which has been further isolated after the murder of the Saudi journalist and Jamal Khashoggi.
US intelligence accuses MBS of having allowed the murder of the registrar of Washington Post. Joe Biden felt, before his election to the White House, that Saudi Arabia should be treated as a state pariah.
Mr. Biden also informed at the time that he refused to exchange directly MBS.
France Media Agency
Source: Radio-Canada
