JEDDAH: US President Joe Biden arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday and met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, breaking his campaign promise to declare the country a “pariah” due to violations of human rights.
Biden became the first US president to fly directly from the Jewish state to an Arab nation that does not recognise it when Saudi state television aired photos of Air Force One reaching the airport in the seaside city of Jeddah following a flight from Israel.
As Biden exited Air Force One while sporting sunglasses, Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of Makkah, and Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, met him.Later, Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler of the kingdom, was shown receiving Biden with a fist bump and leading him into Jeddah’s Al-Salam palace, according to state television network Al-Ekhbariya.
Biden first met the 86-year-old Saudi King Salman, after which he and Prince Mohammed sat across from one another for a “working session” while being surrounded by senior officials.
The US intelligence conclusions indicating Prince Mohammed “authorised” an operation targeting writer Jamal Khashoggi, whose gruesome murder in Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate sparked international outcry, were made public by Biden’s administration after they were first made public last year. Saudi officials assert that Khashoggi’s death was the result of a “rogue” operation and deny that Prince Mohammed was involved.
