US President Joe Biden disagreed with Saudi Arabia yesterday on their account of discussions held at a bilateral summit on the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to Reuters.
US intelligence agencies believe Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the 2018 killing of Khashoggi, a Saudi US citizen, which the de facto Saudi ruler denies.
Speaking to reporters as he arrived at the White House from his first trip to the Middle East as president, Biden disputed the Saudi foreign minister’s account that he did not hear Biden blame Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of the Washington Post columnist, a fierce critic of his native Saudi Arabia.
Asked if Secretary of State Adel al-Jubeir was telling the truth when he recounted the exchange between Biden and the crown prince, the president said “no.”
Jubeir said the crown prince, known as MbS, told Biden that the kingdom had acted to prevent mistakes like the Khashoggi killing from happening again and that the United States had also made mistakes. Read the full story
The minister told Fox News on Saturday that he “didn’t hear that particular phrase” from Biden accusing the crown prince.
A Saudi official who was present at the meeting said the exchange was not as described by President Biden and the discussion about Khashoggi took place before the official meeting in an “informal way”.
The official said he did not hear the president tell the crown prince that he held him responsible for Khashoggi’s murder.
Biden, asked if he regretted exchanging a first blow with MbS on Friday, replied: “Why don’t you talk about something that matters? I’m happy to answer a question that matters.”
Source: Capital
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