Biden to meet with Saudi Arabia leaders despite Khashoggi killing criticism
President Joe Biden will discuss energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation in Saudi Arabia on Friday on a trip designed to restart the US relationship with a country he once pledged to make a "pariah" on the world stage.
Biden will hold meetings with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, along with other government officials, a senior Biden administration official told reporters.
US intelligence concluded that MbS directly approved the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, while the crown prince denies having a role in the killing.
White House advisers have declined to say whether Biden will shake hands with the prince, the kingdom's de facto ruler. Biden will meet with a broader set of Arab leaders at a summit in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah on Saturday.
"The president's going to meet about a dozen leaders and he'll greet them as he usually does," the administration official said.
At the start of Biden's trip to the Middle East, officials said he would avoid close contact, such as shaking hands, as a precaution against COVID-19. But the president ended up engaging in hand-shaking in Israel.
Biden said on Thursday his position on Khashoggi's murder was "absolutely" clear. Biden made his "pariah" comment less than two years ago after the journalist's killing and while campaigning for president.
Biden said that he would raise human rights in Saudi Arabia, but he did not say specifically if he would broach the Khashoggi murder with its leaders.
Saudi ambassador to the United States Reema bint Bandar Al Saud reiterated the kingdom's "abhorrence" of the killing, describing it as a gruesome atrocity, and said it could not define US-Saudi ties in
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