The White House on Monday defended the president’s plans Of the bygones To visit Saudi Arabia and meet its Crown Prince Mohammed bin SalmanAlthough US intelligence concluded that the prince was the one who ordered the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
US officials considered that while Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia has not yet been confirmed; The expected visit will serve US national interests, regardless of the crown prince’s involvement in the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi.
A White House spokeswoman said Karen Jean-Pierre“This trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, when the time comes, will be in the context of important goals for the American people in the Middle East.”
“If he (Biden) decides that it is in the interests of the United States to engage with a foreign leader, and that such engagement can produce results, then he will,” she added.
She pointed out that Saudi Arabia “has been a strategic partner of the United States for nearly 80 years. There is no doubt that important interests” with the Kingdom overlap.
There were speculations about Biden’s first visit as president to Israel and Saudi Arabia during his scheduled trip to Germany and Spain to attend the two summits. group of seven AndNATO This month.
But the White House refused to confirm the reports about the visit’s plan, amid a wave of accusations that Biden had reneged on his previous pledge to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” country because of Khashoggi’s crime.
Later, American media reported that the visit might have been postponed to July. Jean-Pierre did not confirm this news or deny that the administration changed its plans. She said, “People are asking if the visit has been postponed. The president himself said that a visit is under study. But it has not been changed or postponed. Press reports were not accurate.” She added that a trip in June was “under consideration, but not frozen.”
Indications of a return to warmth in the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia come after Saudi Arabia addresses two of Biden’s priorities by agreeing to increase oil production and helping to extend the armistice in Yemen.
Biden is also expected to visit Israel, where he will face specific questions about the slow US diplomacy with Iran.
(AFP)