Reuters has this: “Biden confronts Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi murder, expects action on energy,” by Steve Holland, Aziz El Yaakoubi and Maha El Dahan, Reuters, July 15, 2022:
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday [July 15] he told Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman he held him responsible for the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi as they held talks meant to reset relations with the key Arab ally.
Biden, speaking after meetings with Saudi Arabia’s top leaders, said the crown prince, known as MbS, denied involvement and said he had held those responsible to account.
Biden shared a fist bump with MbS and shook hands with King Salman after arriving in Saudi Arabia.
“With respect to the murder of Khashoggi, I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think about it now,” Biden told reporters.
“I was straight forward 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 inconsistent with who we are and who I am.”
U.S. intelligence says the crown prince directly approved the murder of Khashoggi, a Saudi insider-turned-critic, by Saudi agents. Biden said what happened to Khashoggi was outrageous.
“He basically said that he was not personally responsible for it,” Biden said of the crown prince’s response during their meeting. “I indicated that I thought he was.”
Biden surprised many analysts who had predicted that during his visit to Saudi Arabia he would stay away from the issue of the Khashoggi murder. Instead he showed a welcome willingness to stand up to, and even antagonize, the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, by bringing the Khashoggi murder up directly with him. Of course MBS, addressing Biden with a practiced look of deep sincerity, denied any responsibility for the killing of Khashoggi, and said that those who were responsible had been punished. He added, in a parting bit of tu-quoque, that “the United States had also made mistakes, as in Iraq.”
Meanwhile, there is some question as to whether this exchange really took place at all.
But earlier on the same day, July 15, in his meeting with PA president Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, Biden did not mention the abysmal human rights record of the Palestinian leader, who routinely arrests his political enemies, including the critics who focus on his colossal corruption. These critics are deemed especially dangerous, because the mostly impoverished Palestinians have heard rumors about the fabulous fortune that Abbas and his two sons Tarek and Yasser have accumulated, an amount said to now be $400 million, and are ever more infuriated by what critics of Abbas have revealed. The most effective of these critics was Nizar Banat, 44, a Palestinian activist who posted on social media – mainly Facebook and Twitter. He had over 100,000 followers on Facebook. Banat mocked Abbas, too, with sarcastic videos he made and uploaded about his repressive regime, his entering the 17th year of his four-year term, his insensate greed and grand theft of aid money. Banat was most worrisome, because he was the most biting, critic of the PA President on social media.
Mahmoud Abbas did just what the Saudi Crown Prince did with his most dangerous critic, Jamal Khashoggi: he had Banat killed. About twenty of Abbas’ goons from the Palestinian Protective Security force arrested Banat at 3:30 a.m., after finding him in a relative’s house near Hebron where he had been hiding. He was stripped naked, and beaten for eight straight minutes with iron bars, in the presence of his cousin Ammar, and then he was taken away for more beatings until he was dead. Was the murder of Nizar Banat more acceptable than the murder of Jamal Khashoggi? Is Mahmoud Abbas any less guilty of ordering a critic to be murdered than Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman?
Why did Biden not raise the matter of Nizar Banat with Abbas? Had he done so, it would have lifted the spirits of the 80% of the Palestinians In the PA-run parts of the West Bank who, in a recent poll, said they wanted Abbas to leave office. Just two weeks before Biden traveled to the Middle East, on June 30, Human Rights Watch released a report about the violent repression and torture of dissidents by both Hamas and the PA. Biden might have referred to that report during his meeting with Mahmoud Abbas; he told MBS that he simply had to raise the issue of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, that “for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am.”
Quite right, Mr. President. You did not let the murder of Jamal Khashoggi be passed over without comment at your meeting with MBS. As you said after that chilly Jeddah encounter with MBS, for an American president “to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am.” So why were you so silent in Bethlehem about the murder of Nizar Banat, as ordered by Mahmoud Abbas?
Infidel says
Well, according to Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Foreign Minister and former envoy to DC, while Biden did mention the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Biden “mentioned that he took Saudi Arabia’s assurances at face value” and that he believes Biden accepted Saudi Arabia’s explanation (i.e. denial)
Given Biden’s tendency to lie about a whole host of things, I have to say that I’d go w/ al-Jubeir on this one
Grace says
I don’t believe for one moment that lying Biden mentioned the murder of Khashoggi. I have followed Biden’s very checkered career as a senator for forty five years. I find nothing honorable or decent about this lying pervert exists. The Democrats loved him and his nasty, evil ways. Which says as much about Democrats as it does about him. Lie with dogs you get fleas. The Senate is infested.
tom parry says
Prince Mo should have replied, What about the young intern whom you sexually asulted, Id like a full apology before the press or no more oil. Remember we have lots of stuff about your favorite son Hunter.
commonsense says
I suspect Biden never even heard of Nizar Banat. His Arabist advisors would never apprise him of the full extent of Abbas’s corruption and ruthlessness. Biden in addition, probably has no clue that the millions of dollars he is giving to a “Palestinian” hospital will free up PA money that will be used to fund Abbas’s Slay-for-Pay policy. What an appalling schmuck.