How was the cross between Joe Biden and the Saudi prince for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi

As predicted by journalists and analysts, the meeting between US President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman this Friday in Jeddah had moments of tension over the case of the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. in Turkey in 2018.

Bin Salman told Biden that he cannot impose his “common values” on all countries as it is “counterproductive” and he reminded him that the United States “made mistakes in Iraq and other countries”.

According to a “responsible Saudi source,” quoted this Saturday by the kingdom-owned television channel Al Arabiya, the heir, also known as MBS, made this comment to Biden during a meeting held Friday night in Yeda, where there was also talk of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Biden administration last year released an intelligence assessment that Prince Mohammed “approved” the operation that led to Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

Speaking on Friday night, Biden calls Khashoggi’s death “outrageous” and said he warned Prince Mohamed against further attacks on dissidents, without specifying what action he could take.

The Al Arabiya channel quoted a Saudi official as saying that the two leaders “quickly dealt with the question of Jamal Khashoggi” and that Prince Mohammed “confirmed that what happened is a pity and that the kingdom has taken” all legal measures to prevent “repeating something similar.

Values

“President Biden referred to common values. Prince MBS responded by saying that all countries in the world, particularly the United States, have values ​​on which they agree and a number of values ​​on which they differ,” reads the source note. , depending on the channel.

The meeting was behind closed doors and the press could not enterso the dialogue between the two was not public.

“He added that trying to impose these values ​​by force is highly counterproductive, as has happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the US has not been successful.”

At the same time, he added, again according to the same source: “If we assume that the United States will only deal with countries that share its values ​​and principles one hundred percent, it will have no country that will deal with it except those in NATO, and therefore we have to live with each other despite the differences we live “.

Regarding the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, for which the US intelligence services hold MBS responsible, the Saudi heir told Biden: “What happened is a pity. and we have taken all legal measures, including investigations and legal action, to prevent such errors from happening again in the future. “

Bin Salman also pointed out that “such an incident occurs everywhere in the world, and that in the same year that this unfortunate incident occurred, other journalists were killed in other parts of the world“, he stressed.

What did Biden say?

The US president told reporters in Jeddah on Friday that he spoke to MBS about Khashoggi’s murder, telling him what he thought “frankly and directly”, that “keeping silent about human rights for an American president is something that is not consistent with who we are and who I am. “

According to the Saudi source, MBS told Biden that “the United States has also made a number of mistakes, such as the Abu Ghraib incident in Iraq and others, but what is needed is that these countries address these mistakes and take action. to prevent it from happening again. “

He alluded to torture and abuse committed by the US military against detainees from Iraqi Abu Ghraib prison which caused a political scandal after it was unveiled in 2004, a year after the invasion of Iraq that toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

“MBS also referred to the murder of the American (Palestinian) journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in the West Bank in May, and questioned the measures taken by the United States. and the countries of the world in this regard “, concluded the Saudi source, according to Al Arabiya.

Abu Akleh died following an Israeli operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, and both the Palestinian National Authority and a number of international organizations and media emphasize the Israeli military’s responsibility for his death, something that Israel calls in doubt.

Source: EFE and AFP

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