Brent D. Griffiths
Fri, July 15, 2022
President Joe BidenKevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Biden said he felt "sorry" for Jamal Khashoggi's fiancée Hatice Cengiz.
Cengiz said Biden would have blood on his hands after he agreed to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
US intelligence previously said that MBS was directly implicated in Khashoggi murder.
President Joe Biden on Friday dismissed comments from Hatice Cengiz, Jamal Khashoggi's fiancée, after she criticized the president for his decision to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and greet him with a fistbump.
"I'm sorry she feels that way, I was straightforward back then. I was straightforward today," Biden told reporters in Jeddah following his meeting with the crown prince and other top Saudi officials.
After a photo went viral of Biden fist-bumping the crown prince, Cengiz published a mock-up on Twitter of what Khashoggi would have written had he not been killed.
"Hey @POTUS, Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of the MBS's next victim is on your hands."
The US intelligence community previously determined that the crown prince was directly involved in Khashoggi's brutal murder. Biden also rejected criticism that his rapprochement of relations with the kingdom could make it more likely for future dissidents to be silenced or even killed like Khashoggi was.
"God love you, what a silly question. How could I possibly be sure of any of that?" Biden said when asked of possible future reprisals. "I just made it clear if anything occurs like that again that they'll get that response and much more."
Biden struck a defiant tone after his meeting, mentioning that he brought up Khashoggi's murder directly with the crown prince and that he didn't regret saying during the 2020 presidential campaign that the kingdom would become a "pariah."
"Can I predict anything is gonna happen, let alone here, let alone any other part of the world? No," Biden said. "I don't know why you're all so surprised the way I react."
Biden in Saudi Arabia: 'Washington needs a reset with the Kingdom'
ByAFP
RIYADH: Saudi officials indicated Saturday they were keen to move on from the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, one day after US President Joe Biden raised it in his talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Tensions between the two men had been high ahead of their first meeting, especially after Biden’s administration last year released an assessment by the intelligence community that Prince Mohammed “approved” the operation that led to Khashoggi’s killing and dismemberment in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate.
In remarks Friday night, Biden called Khashoggi’s death “outrageous” and said he had warned Prince Mohammed against further attacks on dissidents, without specifying what actions he might take.
The Al-Arabiya channel quoted a Saudi official saying the pair “addressed the issue of Jamal Khashoggi quickly” and that Prince Mohammed “confirmed that what happened is regrettable and we have taken all legal measures to prevent” a recurrence.
Prince Mohammed also pointed out that “such an incident occurs anywhere in the world”, highlighting “a number of mistakes” made by Washington such as torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Al-Arabiya reported.
In an interview with CNN, Adel al-Jubeir, minister of state for foreign affairs, cast doubt on the intelligence community’s determination that Prince Mohammed ordered the 2018 operation, something Prince Mohammed has denied.
“We know what the intelligence community’s assessment was with regard to Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction,” Jubeir shot back in an exchange with Wolf Blitzer shared widely on Saudi social media.
Accusations that the Iraqi dictator had such weapons trigged the 2003 Iraq War. None were found.
‘Double standards’
Jubeir also made clear the kingdom believed the Khashoggi affair had been sufficiently dealt with, even though Khashoggi’s remains have never been found.
A Saudi court in 2020 jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years over the killing. Their names were never released, and Khashoggi’s fiancee branded the ruling a “farce”.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia investigated this crime. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia held those responsible for it accountable, and they are paying the price of the crime they committed as we speak,” Jubeir said.
“We investigated, we punished and we put in place procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen again. This is what countries do in situations like this.”
Despite lingering discord over the Khashoggi affair, the meeting between Prince Mohammed and Biden “went well with a frank exchange of opinions,” Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst, told AFP.
Prince Mohammed “responded to Biden, pointing out US double standards of making a huge noise about Khashoggi (a Saudi) while trying their best to downplay the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh even though she is a US citizen,” Shihabi said, referring to the Palestinian-American journalist shot dead in May while covering an Israeli army raid in the West Bank.
“But beyond that frank exchange the meeting was very cordial and important to put the bad blood created by Biden’s statement behind them,” he said.
Opinion: Biden-MBS fist bump was a gut punch of reality
Joe Biden may have recalibrated relations with Middle Eastern power brokers, but it will do little for the midterm election prospects of his Democrats back home, DW Washington correspondent Michaela Küfner writes.
Will they shake hands or not? That was the big question as Air Force One approached Jeddah on its historic first direct flight from Israel to Saudi Arabia on Friday. Official media there were quick to spread the image of US President Joe Biden greeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump — stopping just short of the handshakes he had extended to Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
This three-second encounter meant "mission accomplished" for Saudis: the ultimate rehabilitation of their future king by the very US president who had vowed to make the country a "pariah" state during his campaign. Candidate Biden had made this a point of principle after a US intelligence report found that Crown Prince Mohammed personally signed off on the killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashogghi in 2018. Biden said he brought up the killing "at the top of the meeting" with Crown Prince Mohammed, who contests the details of his involvement.
DW Washington correspondent Michaela Küfner
And now, Biden, and with him the United States, are moving on. Instead of isolating Crown Prince Mohammed, MBS, the US president posed for a photo with him.
'Recalibrate, not rupture'
Biden scored some diplomatic successes on his trip to the Middle East: the extension of the truce in Yemen, a direct air link between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and a host of commitments for regional stability by members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, plus Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. The president pledged $1 billion for food security in the region, as well as for the United States to guarantee free shipping routes through the region. These were all steps that prove to the Middle East that "America is back" — as Biden had announced to the world shortly after taking office in 2021. But concrete outputs, like an increase in oil production to ease fuel prices back home, are something that Biden himself only expects during the coming "weeks."
Much of what Biden aimed to achieve is strategic and may only pay off in the longer term — increasing the likelihood that those successes will be lost on US voters. During Biden's first stop in Israel, he had already made clear that the key aim of his Middle East trip was to avoid leaving a "vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran." And the White House sought to "recalibrate, not rupture," relations with Saudi Arabia in order to prevent a further loss of American influence. This concern was fueled further by the fear that Iran could gain a nuclear weapon.
Containing Iran marks a rare alignment of interests for Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States — but it also requires quite a bit of diplomatic juggling by Biden. While Biden vowed in Israel to be willing to use "all" US capabilities to stop Iran from acquiring a bomb, he said a purely diplomacy-driven revival of the internationally negotiated Iran nuclear deal — which is opposed by Israel — remained his preferred option. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for his part, was left disappointed by the visit. Biden pledged $300 million in fresh aid, but the much-talked-about potential reopening of the US consulate in East Jerusalem did not materialize.
US voters unimpressed
Most of this is too far from home for Americans struggling with soaring prices. And that's the real danger for a president engaging on the global stage. Many feel that he should rather be taking care of prices at the pump rather than the diplomatic cost of keeping the United States in the global power game. In an op-ed before his trip, Biden felt the need to explain publicly that he was striving for a more secure Middle East that "benefits Americans" and thereby deliver benefits back home.
Leading lawmakers from Biden's own Democratic Party were so concerned by the potential selling out of American values through the meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed that they wrote a letter cautioning the president to truly put US interests "first" when reengaging with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The letter's lead author was none other than the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, who pointed to evidence that Saudi Arabia is also cooperating with China on defense. Schiff tweeted that Biden's fist bump with Crown Prince Mohammed was a "visual reminder of the continuing grip oil-rich autocrats have on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East."
The bread-and-butter benefits of Biden's Middle East trip will only become apparent in the medium term. That may prove too late for a US president struggling with the highest inflation rate in four decades, a 60% rise in petrol prices within 12 months and a nosedive in approval ratings. The deadline is November 8, when the midterm elections will decide whether Biden's Democrats retain enough seats in Congress to be able to pass meaningful legislation during the second half of his presidential term
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