#Saudis #balk #Biden #highlights #killing #Khashoggi
Saudi officials said on Saturday they were desperate to refrain from killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a day after US President Joe Biden raised him in his talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Tensions between the two men had been running high before their first meeting, particularly after Biden’s government released an intelligence assessment last year that Prince Mohammed “authorized” the operation that led to Khashoggi’s assassination and dismemberment at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate have.
In a remark Friday night, Biden called Khashoggi’s death “outrageous” and said he had warned Prince Mohammed of further attacks on dissidents without specifying what action he might take.
The Al-Arabiya channel quoted a Saudi official as saying the couple were “quick to raise Jamal Khashoggi’s issue” and Prince Mohammed “confirmed that what happened is regrettable and that we have taken all legal action to resolve it.” to prevent a recurrence”.
Prince Mohammed also pointed out that “such an incident occurs anywhere in the world” and highlighted “a number of mistakes” by Washington, such as the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, Al-Arabiya reported.
In an interview with CNN, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir questioned the intelligence services’ finding that Prince Mohammed ordered the 2018 operation, which Prince Mohammed has denied.
“We know the intelligence community’s assessment of Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction,” Jubeir shot back in an exchange with Wolf Blitzer that was shared widely on Saudi social media.
Allegations that the Iraqi dictator possessed such weapons sparked the 2003 Iraq war. None were found.
– ‘double standards’ –
Jubeir also made it clear that the kingdom believed the Khashoggi affair had been adequately addressed, although Khashoggi’s remains were never found.
A Saudi court in 2020 sentenced eight people to between seven and 20 years in prison for the murder. Their names were never released, and Khashoggi’s fiancée branded the verdict a “farce”.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has investigated this crime. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has held those responsible accountable and they are paying the price for the crime they committed as we speak,” Jubeir said.
“We have investigated, we have penalized and we have procedures in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again. That’s what countries do in situations like this.”
Despite continued disagreement over the Khashoggi affair, the meeting between Prince Mohammed and Biden “went well with an open exchange of views,” Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst, told AFP.
Prince Mohammed “responded to Biden and pointed out the US double standard of making a big noise about Khashoggi (a Saudi) while trying their best to downplay the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh despite her being a US citizen,” he said Shihabi, referring to the In May, a Palestinian-American journalist was shot dead while covering an Israeli army raid in the West Bank.
“But beyond these frank exchanges, the meeting was very heartfelt and important to put behind the bad blood caused by Biden’s testimony,” he said.
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