Biden to meet with Saudi King Salman, MBS: WH
3 Min Read
The US president has been facing a lot of criticism for abandoning his commitment to transform Saudi Arabia into a "pariah".
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US President Joe Biden speaks while visiting a POET Bioprocessing plant in Menlo, Iowa, US, April 12, 2022 (REUTERS)
During his visit to Riyadh the following week, US President Joe Biden will have meetings with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his executive council as well as the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby announced on Thursday.
"The President [Biden] will sit down in a bilateral meeting with King Salman and his leadership team. As you know, the Crown Prince is on that leadership team, so he'll be a part of that meeting," Kirby said during a press briefing. "[T]he President will be seeing the Crown Prince in the context of that larger bilateral discussion."
According to Kirby, energy security will "clearly" be a topic of discussion during the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit on July 16 in which US President Joe Biden will participate.
"Clearly, energy security will be a topic of discussion," Kirby said during the press briefing.
The National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications said that the United States is exploring ideas about integrating various Middle Eastern countries' air defense capabilities in order to achieve a more effective coverage against Iran's growing ballistic missile program.
"Bilaterally, we're talking with nations across the region about air defense capabilities specifically and what we can do to assist with air defense and then exploring the idea of being able to kind of integrate all those air defenses together so that there truly is a more effective coverage to deal with the growing Iranian threat," Kirby stated.
On Monday, a US judge requested the Biden administration to rule on whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be granted sovereign immunity in a civil complaint launched in the US by Hatice Cengiz, Jamal Khashoggi's partner, the journalist who was murdered by Saudi operatives in 2018.
A district court judge, John Bates, gave the US government until August 1 to declare its interests in the civil action or notify the court that it has no opinion on the matter.
The administration's decision might have a significant impact on the civil lawsuit, and it comes as Joe Biden faces criticism for breaking a campaign promise to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" state.
