Mention of human rights violations in Abu Ghraib… Biden: ‘I’m not silent on human rights issues’
U.S. President Joe Biden has been accused of human rights issues in the United States by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was accused of assassination of dissident journalist Jajal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia.
When President Biden raised the issue of responsibility for the assassination of journalists, it was rather counter-attacked.
President Biden, who is visiting Saudi Arabia, raised the issue of Khashoggi in a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed the day before.
“The Khashoggi issue has been brought up at all meetings, and I have made it clear what I was thinking then and now,” Biden said at the press conference after the meeting.
“Personally, I am not responsible and I have taken action against those responsible,” Crown Prince Mohammed said during the meeting, Biden said.
In fact, he denied that he was responsible for anything.
Crown Prince Mohammed further discussed the US military’s abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the shooting of Palestinian-American journalist Sirin Abu Acle, CNN reported on the same day, citing sources.
It is interpreted as a rebuttal to the effect that the United States, which raises the problem against itself, also has human rights problems.
The Abu Ghraib incident, mentioned by Crown Prince Mohammed, became known in 2004 when photos of the US military abusing Iraqi prisoners were released.
Reporter Abu Akle was also shot dead while covering an Israeli search operation in Palestine in May.
For this reason, it was criticized by some for actually giving an indulgence to Israel.
Earlier, President Biden visited Saudi Arabia with the pretext of attending an Arab multilateral summit when US intelligence officials pointed out Crown Prince Mohammed as the mastermind behind the assassination of Khashoggi and threatened to outlaw Saudi Arabia. did.
This visit has been criticized from the start, as it did not change Saudi Arabia’s attitude toward the Khashoggi issue.
In particular, the controversy grew when President Biden greeted Crown Prince Mohammed at the airport the day before and said a “fist-off”.
President Biden smiled and did not respond immediately when asked at a press conference the day before that he was being criticized for his “fist bow”.
When asked what he would do to prevent an incident such as the Khashoggi assassination from recurring in the future, he said, “It’s a stupid question,” and “How do I know what’s going to happen?”
“When I criticized President Xi Jinping for forced labor in Xinjiang, China said that the United States had no right to criticize itself. “It is not in line with the identity of the United States to remain quiet about this,” he said, emphasizing that he would not remain silent about human rights violations.
/yunhap news