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JERUSALEM — President Biden has defended his decision to meet with the Saudi crown prince who masterminded the killing and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the Saudis must be involved in any effort to stabilize a volatile region.
Biden made the announcement during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on the second day of his five-day trip to the Middle East.
“My views on Khashoggi have been absolutely, positively clear, and I have never been silent about speaking out about human rights,” he said in response to a question. “The reason I’m going to Saudi Arabia is to advance US interests in a way that I think we have an opportunity to regain influence in the Middle East.”
Analysis: Two murders haunt Biden’s Middle East trip
Biden also said alienating the Saudis would contribute to a leadership vacuum, adding “I always bring up human rights,” though he never specifically said he would bring up Khashoggi’s killing.
“There are so many issues at stake, I want to make sure that we can continue to lead in the region and not create a vacuum – a vacuum that is being filled by both Russia and China,” he said.
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, who is widely referred to by his initials MBS, ordered the 2018 assassination of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist.
The killing was widely condemned, including by Biden during the campaign, where he publicly vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah. He expressed deep reservations to aides about meeting Mohammed and said the country’s government had “very little social redemption value.”
In June he said “I will not meet with MBS.”
The White House then confirmed the meeting with MBS, saying Biden would meet the crown prince as part of a bilateral meeting with Saudi King Salman and the country’s wider leadership team.
During a meeting Thursday with Lapid earlier in the day, Biden spoke of the cooperation needed to stabilize the region and ensure Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon.
“This is a vital security interest for both Israel and the United States, and I would add for the rest of the world,” he said.
He said this would be the main message of his meeting with the Saudis.
“When I meet with the Saudi leadership tomorrow, I will bring a direct message,” Biden said. “A message of peace and of the extraordinary opportunities that a more stable integrated region can bring to the region and, frankly, to the rest of the world.”
Still, his decision to share space with MBS was a lightning rod. Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, condemned Biden’s visit.
“You can imagine how shocked and disappointed I was to learn that you would break your promise and travel to Saudi Arabia to possibly meet with the Crown Prince – the person US intelligence has identified as responsible for ordering Jamal’s murder,” it said. she commented – published in the “Washington Post”.
“You condemn Russia for persecuting dissidents and committing war crimes in Ukraine. But the Saudis are committing the same horrific human rights abuses. Why are they being given a pass? Is that the price of oil?”
Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan chastised Biden for “going to Jeddah on his knees to shake the bloody hand of the ‘pariah.’
Ryan wrote that the meeting “will signal that American values are up for debate” and that Biden is “turning a blind eye to Jamal’s killing in an effort to lower gas prices before this fall’s midterms.”
Biden should have limited handshakes on this trip. It has trouble doing so.
Questions about the tense meeting even overshadowed the first segment of Biden’s trip, when he made his tenth visit to Israel and stepped off Air Force One with fist bumps instead of handshakes.
The White House has defended itself against criticism that the new presidential protocol, which avoids handshakes, is less about protecting the president from the coronavirus and more about gracefully avoiding the optics of a handshake between MBS and Biden.
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