US President Joe Biden brought up the issue of Khashoggi’s murder when in conversation with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, on Friday. ‘Said “You’re to blame for journalist Khashoggi’s murder.”
Biden did not make any remarks publically on the issue of Jamal Khashoogi’s murder, but he blamed the crown prince in a closed-door meeting. He thereupon mentioned to the reporters that he considered the murder “outrageous” and confronted the crown prince, who was blamed earlier by the CIA in 2018 for the assassination of the US-based journalist Jamal Khashoogi in Istanbul by Saudi operatives.
“I raised it at the top of the meeting, making clear what I thought at the time and what I think of it now. I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my view crystal clear. 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 always stand up for our values,” said the US President.
He further added that Mohammad Bin Salman, also known as M.B.S, denied the liability. “He basically said that he was not personally responsible for it,” said Biden. Jamal Khashoogi was a columnist for The Washington Post and Middle East Eye. He was murdered in Istanbul in 2018, allegedly on the insistence of Mohammad Bin Salman by the agents of Saudi Arabia. Mr. Biden had expressed his wrath and had said that he would make Saudi Arabia a “Pariah.”
Mr. Biden’s meeting with M.B.S has outraged human rights activists along with Kahshoogi’s family. His fiancée expressed resentment in her tweet, which said, “Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS’s next victims is on your hands. “