He received Biden on Friday at the Al Salam royal palace in the coastal city of Jeddah, where Biden also met King Salman, the state news agency SPA showed. It is the first time a US president has met the crown prince outside of international summits since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi four years ago.
After the reception, both delegations came together for a working meeting. At a long conference table in the palace, Biden and the crown prince sat opposite each other, surrounded by ministers and other government officials. Reporters from Biden’s delegation reported that neither the US President nor the Crown Prince had answered journalists’ questions about Jamal Khashoggi. According to recordings by the Al-Arabiya television station, the mood at the table seemed relaxed.
Cool reception
Khashoggi was brutally killed by a hit squad at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. US secret services see the crown prince – also known by his acronym “MBS” – as directly responsible. He denied having ordered the killing himself. Biden has repeatedly had to defend his trip and meeting with the crown prince against criticism.
Upon arrival, Biden received an extremely cold reception compared to his predecessor, Donald Trump. Khalid al-Faisal, governor of Mecca, and Rima bint Bandar, ambassador to the US, welcomed him at Jeddah airport on Friday – a clear rebuff for the US president in view of their rank. The arrival also came in stark contrast to Biden’s arrival in Israel, where its President Ytzhak Herzog and Prime Minister Yair Lapid had earlier welcomed him with a formal ceremony.
Goal: “Promote human rights”
Biden defended the trip against criticism beforehand and during his first stop in Israel. According to his security advisor Jake Sullivan, the US President wanted to address the human rights situation in the Gulf monarchy. Sullivan said on the Tel Aviv to Jeddah flight that Biden would talk about it publicly and at his meetings behind closed doors. “The President remains committed to advancing the cause of human rights.”
Khashoggi was brutally killed by a hit squad at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. US secret services see the crown prince – also known by his acronym “MBS” – as directly responsible. He denied having ordered the killing himself.
Critic: Bad signal
The meeting with the crown prince was a “betrayal of human rights supporters and Saudi dissidents who expect so much more from the president,” wrote Abdullah Alaudh of the democracy organization DAWN with another author before Biden’s trip. Khashoggi had started the organization before his death. In the fight for freedom and climate protection, the signal of the trip could hardly be worse, the authors explained, also with a view to Saudi Arabia as one of the world’s largest oil producers.
As a sign of detente, as well as a tangible success for Biden, the kingdom opened its airspace to flights to and from Israel. Biden spoke of a “historic” step on the “path to a more integrated and stable Middle East region”. The opening was also possible thanks to months of efforts by his and the Saudi government, he said.
The aviation authority of Saudi Arabia announced on Friday night that Saudi airspace will in future be “opened to all airlines that meet the authority’s requirements for an overflight”. Israel and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic relations, and the government in Riyadh does not recognize the country as a state. This is probably one of the reasons why the official statement from the Saudi side did not expressly refer to Israel. Biden’s message, on the other hand, explicitly mentioned flights to and from Israel.
Source: Nachrichten
