The Italian newspaper, Formiche, has shed light on US President Joe Biden’s planned visit to Saudi Arabia, a country he vowed to treat as a ‘pariah.’ Biden has some strategic priorities to make a step back to repair strained relations with a longtime US ally and bring more oil onto the global market, the paper said.
The reported visit comes hours after Saudi Arabia addressed two of Biden’s priorities by agreeing to a production hike in oil and helping extend a truce in war-battered Yemen.
The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN, quoting anonymous sources, said that Biden would go ahead with the long-rumored Saudi stop on an upcoming trip.
CNN said that Biden would meet Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, 36-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was accused by US intelligence of ordering the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she had no travel to announce, adding only: “The president will look for opportunities to engage with leaders from the Middle East region.”
The trip marks a significant reversal for Biden, who as a candidate promised to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” state after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Washington Post journalist and critic of bin Salman, at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.
While running for president, Biden called for Saudi leaders to be treated as “the pariah that they are” after the ultraconservative kingdom’s chummy relationship with his predecessor Donald Trump.
Trump had largely shielded Saudi Arabia from consequences after Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote critically about Crown Prince Mohammed in The Washington Post, was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he was strangled and dismembered.
Trump’s son-in-law and top aide, Jared Kushner, had developed a close bond with the prince known by his initials “MBS,” reportedly conversing with him over WhatsApp chats.
Shortly after taking office, Biden released the intelligence report that said MBS authorized Khashoggi’s killing and his administration imposed visa restrictions on dozens of Saudis accused of threatening dissidents.
“They have to be held accountable,” Biden said in 2019 during an NBC News-Washington Post candidate debate.
Biden also scaled back support from a Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen amid revulsion over civilian casualties.
How to address human rights will likely be a complicated question for Biden, with MBS reportedly angered when US officials previously raised the killing of Khashoggi.
In a rare interview earlier this year with The Atlantic, MBS said of whether Biden understood him: “Simply, I do not care.”
“It’s up to him to think about the interests of America,” he said with a shrug.
In his initial presidential dealings with Saudi Arabia, Biden opted to exclusively communicate with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, the kingdom’s official head of state, while shunning the more powerful crown prince. That calculus appears to have changed as gas prices in the U.S. continue to reach record highs due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, rising inflation levels, and a general market downturn.
Just three months ago, Saudi officials were reportedly ignoring the White House’s calls to boost its oil exports. However, the Financial Times reported this week that Saudi Arabia is now open to increasing its oil shipments to the West if wartime sanctions cause Russia’s oil output to tumble.
