Three years after Joe Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah state over the assassination of a prominent dissident, the US president greeted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump as his administration attempts to reset relations and stabilise global oil markets.
Whereas Donald Trump was personally welcomed to the conservative Gulf kingdom on his first presidential visit by King Salman, Biden was met on the tarmac on Friday evening by the governor of Mecca and the Saudi ambassador to the US in a subdued ceremony before travelling to the city’s al-Salam palace, where he held talks with the 86-year-old king and his powerful heir, Prince Mohammed, before a working meeting.
Oil, human rights, Iran, Israel and the war in Yemen are all on the agenda for what is likely to be a thorny 24-hour trip. Saudi Arabia has been a key strategic ally for the US for decades, both selling oil and buying weaponry, but when he was running for president, Biden vowed to turn the kingdom into a “global pariah” over the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. » | Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem | Friday, July 15, 2022
