Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly pushed again in opposition to criticism from United States President Joe Biden of their assembly final Friday, when pressed on the killing of Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. MBS tried to claim the U.S. president has double requirements on human rights.
Bin Salman harassed that different journalists had been killed all through the world that yr, but their deaths didn’t appear to concern the U.S. authorities as a lot as Khashoggi’s case.
In response to a Saudi official who spoke with Al Arabiya, the crown prince talked about the deadly capturing of Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh within the West Financial institution in Could. A U.S. official instructed The Instances of Israel that MBS requested Biden what he was doing to attain justice for her, particularly as a U.S. citizen.
MBS additionally invoked a collection of reported human rights violations and torture by U.S. forces in opposition to detainees within the Abu Ghraib jail within the early phases of the Iraq warfare.
MBS famous that it’s needed that “international locations cope with these errors and take measures to stop them from taking place once more.”
He additionally assured Biden that the Saudi kingdom has undertaken all authorized proceedings associated to Khashoggi’s homicide, together with investigations, trials, sentencing and the implementation of the sentences.
The president instructed reporters on Friday that the crown prince mentioned of their assembly that he’s not “not personally accountable” for the killing of the Washington Put up journalist.
“I raised it on the prime of the assembly, making it clear what I considered it on the time and what I considered it now,” Biden instructed reporters. “I made my view crystal clear. I mentioned very straightforwardly: For an American president to stay silent on a problem of human rights could be inconsistent with who we’re and who I’m. I’ll at all times get up for our values.”
“He mainly mentioned that he was not personally accountable for it,” Biden mentioned of MBS. “I indicated that he was, and he mentioned he was not personally accountable for it, and he took motion in opposition to those that had been accountable.”
The assembly between the 2 leaders was described by Arabic media shops as “frosty.” Within the U.S., the president has come beneath fireplace from progressives for holding the assembly and even touring to the Gulf kingdom.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders instructed ABC Information on Sunday, “I simply don’t imagine we needs to be sustaining a heat relationship with a dictatorship like that.”
This text initially appeared on ALL ARAB NEWS and is reposted with permission.
