Biden Defends Meeting With Saudi Crown Prince

U.S. President Joe Biden on July 15 defended meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite promising not to do so while running for president.

The crown prince has been accused of orchestrating the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 after Khashoggi went into a Saudi embassy in Turkey.

Biden told reporters after the meeting, which also involved other Saudi officials, that he raised the murder of Khashoggi, who was employed by the Washington Post, at the top of the meeting.

“I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my view crystal clear. I said very straightforwardly: For an American President to be silent on an issue of human rights, is this consistent with—inconsistent with who we are and who I am? I’ll always stand up for our values,” he said in prepared remarks.

Asked how bin Salman responded, Biden said that “he basically said he was not personally responsible for it.”

“I indicated I thought he was,” Biden said.

The White House misquoted Biden, inserting a word he did not say—”probably”—before “was” in its official transcript of Biden’s briefing.

“He said he was not personally responsible for it and he took action against those who were responsible,” Biden added.

While campaigning for the presidency, Biden said that if he were elected, the United States would stop selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and “make them pay the price, and make them in fact the pariah that they are.”

After taking office, Biden restricted arms sales to the Middle Eastern country.

Biden told reporters he did not regret his remark about making the nation a pariah.

“I just made it clear if anything occurs like that again, they’ll get that response and much more,” the president added later.

U.S. President Joe Biden (center L) takes part in a working session with

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