Biden to visit KSA despite 'pariah' status
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US President Joe Biden will be paying a visit to Saudi Arabia despite his assertions that he would punish Riyadh for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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US President Joe Biden boarding the Air Force One
US President Joe Biden has long been championing punishing Saudi Arabia over the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Riyadh's grave human rights violations, but it seems that the Kingdom's "pariah" status will have to wait, for the US needs oil and energy.
President Biden will be packing his suitcase and boarding the Air Force One to Riyadh later this month in a bid to make amends with the oil-rich Gulf state at a time that his country is in need, as the US grapples with an energy crisis domestically and attempts to isolate Russia abroad.
The Biden administration is still foggy on the logistics and timing, but the Democrat will add the visit to a previously scheduled trip to Europe and occupied Palestine, officials have told The New York Times.
When Biden lands in Riyadh, he will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the man behind Khashoggi's assassination, despite his assertions that his meetings would exclusively be with King Salman bin Abdulaziz because he is his proper counterpart.
He will also meet with the heads of several Arab nations, including Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Jordan.
The visit will see Biden abandoning many of the "morals" he has been trying to uphold before the public, and it all goes back to the Ukraine war, as Washington deems it necessary to have other energy producers on its side after it sanctioned Russia out of the global oil market.
Reports about the visit - ironically - come the same day as White House Spokeswoman Karen Jean-Pierre said Biden's remarks about Saudi Arabia, which he described as a "pariah", still stood.
Jean-Pierre was asked how after US intelligence assessed that MBS was behind the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a visit to Saudi Arabia would be consistent with Biden's remarks last year that Saudi Arabia would "pay the price, and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are."
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, announced Thursday that it would pump out more oil in July and August - though modestly - and US officials project that they will up the amount as autumn nears.
Riyadh has rebuffed requests by the United States for more oil, as Saudi Arabia has the potential of easing pressure on supply and prices, which would mitigate the current economic crisis.
Amid all of the developments that have taken place over the past months, both in West Asia and globally, the Saudis have signaled that their relationship with the US has deteriorated under the Biden administration.
Biden is running toward MBS, somewhat of a sworn enemy of his, despite US intelligence finding that he pulled the strings of the team that brutally murdered and dismembered Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The Biden admin has been cooperating closer and closer with Saudi Arabia in recent months, especially on the Saudi-led war on Yemen, as Washington pushed Riyadh to extend an armistice with Sanaa. Biden also went as far as praising the role of Saudi officials in the armistice, saying that the country "demonstrated courageous leadership" just because it decided to stop dropping bombs on Yemeni civilians - as it has been doing for nearly a decade.
