Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia, shadow to follow

Beden will hold meetings with Saudi Arabia King Salman bin Abdulaziz and with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, as well as with other government officials, an official from the Biden administration has said.

American intelligence had concluded that MUS had directly approved the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2918, while the Arab prince denies having been involved in the murder.

Advisers from the White House have refused to tell whether Biden will shake hands with the prince, who de-facto is the leader of the kingdom. Biden will meet other Arab leaders at a summit at the Red Sea port-city of Jeddah on Saturday.

Killing Khashogg, a terrible cruelty

Early in the visit of Beden to the Middle East, officials said it would avoid contacts, such as hand-cuffing, as a move against COVID-19. But the president ended up shaking hands in Israel.

Beden said on Thursday that his position on Khasogg's murder was “totally clear”. Biden had made his comments to the Ivanah more than two years earlier after the journalist's murder and while campaigning for president.

Beden said he would freeze the human rights issue in Saudi Arabia, but he did not disclose whether to mention Khashogg's murder with the country's leaders.

Khashoggi's fiancée, Hatice Cnegiz, said Beden's decision to visit Saudi Arabia was “heartbreaker”.

Even after fierce international criticism of Khashogg's murder, the prince has not changed the disk. Despite the legal reforms to prevent the death penalty, just four months earlier the kingdom had carried out the greatest executions, where 81 men were sentenced after charges involving darkness, half of which were of the Shii minority. /Periscopi/