US President Joe Biden says he raised the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a meeting with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
Mr Biden is in Saudi Arabia to rebuild relations, having previously promised to make the country a “pariah” over its human rights record.
He said he had made it clear the killing was “vitally important to me and the United States”.
But he also said the two countries reached agreements on other issues.
Mr Biden’s visit has been criticised as validating the Saudi government following the murder of the US-based dissident journalist Mr Khashoggi in 2018.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was accused by US intelligence agencies of approving the murder.
The prince has always denied the allegations, and Saudi prosecutors blamed “rogue” Saudi agents.
“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 of it now,” Mr Biden said in a press briefing after the meeting.
“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. I’ll always stand up for our values’.”
Prior to the meeting Mr Biden was pictured fist-bumping the crown prince, indicating an apparent warming of relations between the two countries.
But Mr Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, criticised the president’s actions. Tweeting a photo of the two men along with the words she imagined her fiancé would have said, she wrote: “Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS’s next victim is on your hands.”
Other than Mr Khashoggi’s murder, President Biden announced Saudi Arabia’s move to open its air space to aircraft flying to and from Israel, which was previously banned.
He also said they had discussed energy – a hot topic in the US – and that he expected to see Saudi Arabia, a major oil producer, take “further steps” to stabilise the market in the coming weeks.
BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon
- Published
pub-5160901092443552
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