Picture : Twitter / ANI
United States President Joe Biden said he raised the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the beginning of his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
“I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think of it now,” Biden said in a speech after hours of meetings with the Saudi Crown Prince in Jeddah, reported ANI.
“I said, very straightforwardly, for an American President to be silent on the issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” Biden continued.
“I’ll always stand up for our values,” he added.
However, responding to the questions raised by the media, Biden later said that the Saudi Crown Prince told him he was not “personally responsible” for Khashoggi’s murder.
“I indicated I thought he was,” Biden said. “He said he was not personally responsible for it, and he took action against those who were responsible.”
Biden received criticism earlier on Friday when he was photographed fist bumping the Saudi Crown Prince, who the US intelligence community concluded approved Khashoggi’s 2018 murder.
Biden not only highlighted the progress in moving relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel towards normalization and said the US and Saudi Arabia agreed to partner on a “far-reaching” green energy initiative.
