Bin Salman defends before Biden his innocence in the case of the murdered American journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman, defended himself this Friday before the president of the United States, Joe Biden, of the declassified CIA report that blames him for the murder of the American journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul in October of 2018.

As President Biden has reported to the media, Bin Salman has not only claimed not to be “personally responsible” for Khashoggi’s death, but has also claimed to have taken “measures against those responsible.”

“I indicated that I thought he was (responsible) (…). He said he was not personally responsible for it, and took action against those responsible,” Biden told the media present at the exit of his meeting with Bin Salman in the Saudi city of Jeddah, according to the newspaper ‘The Hill’.

President Biden landed this Friday in Jeddah, where he plans to spend the next two days as part of his tour of the Middle East, which has already taken him to Israel, and which will now meet with both Bin Salman and King Salman bin Abdulaziz and other top officials in the country.

The stop of the White House tenant has raised controversy, although the president has assured at all times that the visit is motivated by “strategic” issues and has highlighted that respect for Human Rights will be one of the main points that he will address with Saudi representatives.

One of the issues that has provoked the most criticism has been precisely the events related to Khashogi’s death. In fact, this Friday’s greeting between Biden and Bin Salman has been classified as “shameful” by the executive director of the newspaper ‘Washington Post’, Fred Ryan, the medium in which the murdered journalist worked.

Journalists have criticized the greeting — a fist bump between the president and the prince — for the possibility of another Khashogi-like incident happening again.

“I just made it clear that if something like this happens again, they will get answers,” Biden said, before noting that the president of the United States can criticize the actions of other leaders, just as he did with “Xi Jinping and slavery”, has nuanced

“For the president of the United States to remain silent about a clear violation of human rights is totally incompatible with who we are (…) and what we believe in, that is why I am not going to remain silent”, the American president has influenced.

Another of Biden’s most questioned points has been his contradiction regarding the position that the United States would take towards Saudi Arabia. Due to the Khashogi case, the president stressed that Washington’s position would be to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah” at the international level, although his visit seems to go against the affirmation.

In this regard, the tenant of the White House has assured that he does not regret what he said, and has stressed that what happened with the journalist “was outrageous.”

Biden thus began a new stage of his tour of the region in Saudi Arabia after a two-day visit to Israel, where he met with high-ranking officials from the country, as well as with the Palestinian authorities, and where he stressed that the end of the conflict goes through a two-state solution.

Regarding Saudi Arabia being one of the stops on his tour of the region, Biden acknowledged this Friday in Jeddah that the United States cannot leave “a void” in the Middle East “for Russia or China to fill.” “We are getting results,” he has settled.

MAINTAIN THE TRUCE IN YEMEN

The bilateral meeting between the United States and Saudi Arabia has resulted in several agreements, among which the commitment to take measures with the aim of extending the truce mediated by the United Nations in Yemen stands out.

“We agree to work together to deepen and broaden the ceasefire in Yemen,” he announced, before emphasizing that the truce has lasted more than three months, making it “the most peaceful period in Yemen in seven years.”

In turn, politicians have succeeded in opening Saudi airspace to flights from Israel, whether those aircraft are coming from or going from Israeli territory to Saudi Arabia.

International forces, including US forces, withdraw from the island of Tiran in the Red Sea, where they have been for more than 40 years since the Camp David Accords, which led to the recognition of Israel by Egypt and peace between the two countries.

“Now, thanks to the breakup, this breakthrough, this island will be open for tourism and economic development while retaining all necessary security arrangements and current freedom of navigation on all sides,” Biden said.

Finally, both countries have agreed to investment in technology and clean energy by the Saudis, as well as “adequate” oil supplies to support global economic growth, through a guarantee of energy security.

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