A street sign bearing the name of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi was unveiled in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington on the same day the White House announced Joe Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia.

President Biden is likely to meet with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the visit, despite having continuously criticized the Kingdom for its human-rights record, especially following the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, which US intelligence pins on MBS.

Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributor, was killed, dismembered, and disposed of at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. 

Biden had previously labeled Riyadh a "pariah" for the murder and other human rights violations, but with the average price of gasoline in the United States now just above $5, and given other geopolitical priorities, he is now courting MBS.

#JoeBiden has long been championing punishing #SaudiArabia over the assassination of #Saudi journalist #JamalKhashoggi 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. pic.twitter.com/SMsgIrX81z

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 3, 2022

The new Washington street sign was unveiled on Wednesday shortly after 1.14pm ET, the time Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

At the time, Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi fiancée, challenged Biden to answer for his hypocrisy and demanded clarifications about the whereabouts of her fiancé’s body.

The statement read: “Today, on this happy but very solemn occasion, I have two messages. My first message is to Jamal. Dear Jamal, the ideas and values you lost your life defending have been celebrated worldwide and continue to spread in the region and in the globe.

“My second message is to President Joe Biden. Mr Biden, you’ll soon visit Saudi Arabia as president, where you’ll meet with Jamal’s heartless executioner, dishonoring yourself and Jamal … Mr President, I beseech you not to lose your moral authority or overlook this heinous crime. You must uphold your vow to bring all the perpetrators of this brutal crime to justice.

Related News

Biden adminstration explores removing HTS from terrorist list

Biden says US to work with partners in Syria to manage risks

“As disappointing as this is, if you have to put oil over principles and expediency over values, can you at least ask, ‘Where is Jamal’s body? Doesn’t he deserve a proper burial? And what happened to his killers?’

“Ask also about the hundreds of other political prisoners rotting in Saudi jails and the victims of brutal repression like Jamal, who have been suffering immensely under an oppressive regime.”

Khalid Al-Jabri, the son of former Saudi intelligence chief Saad Al-Jabri, and his siblings, Sarah and Omar, were also present at the unveiling.

He described the unveiling of the Jamal Khashoggi Way sign as "a very significant symbolic gesture that would remind people of Jamal Khashoggi's grisly murder that occurred inside a diplomatic mission."

Read more: MBS Is a "Psychopath" Who Planned to Kill King Abdullah: Al-Jabri

While Al-Jabri believes it is impossible for the US to completely cut ties with Saudi Arabia, he believes there must be accountability for human rights violations.

Al-Jabri said as quoted by The Guardian that “Biden made it clear that there won’t be any direct consequences for MBS [Prince Mohammed] for murdering Khashoggi. Unfortunately, that is the equivalent of a presidential pardon for murder, and MBS would perceive it as the Biden-issued license-to-kill more Khashoggis.

“All he has to do is do it without leaving fingerprints. But accountability matters. The nearest thing to accountability is to make sure that the repression that Jamal died exposing ceases to exist.

“The fact is there are American hostages in Saudi Arabia and you can’t abandon your citizens depending on which dictators are keeping them hostage.”

Read more: Neom: MBS' personal dystopia