Newsman: The US president Joe Biden plans to travel to Saudi Arabia in July. The White House said Tuesday Biden would travel to Saudi Arabia next month for a summit of Arab leaders.
The visit will include a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, as well as with the effective leader of the country, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to White House officials. Biden has also come under intense criticism for agreeing to meet with Mohammed, whom the U.S. has assessed, ordered the operation that murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden will also travel to Israel and the West Bank during the trip, which will take place July 13 to 16, according to the White House.
In response to Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia A coalition of families and survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks on urged President Joe Biden, during his visit to Saudi Arabia next month, to hold the kingdom accountable for its role in the terrorist strike that killed almost 3,000 people.
“We appreciate the president’s commitment to do everything he can to support the 9/11 family community, but empathy is not enough,” Terry Strada, the national chair of “9/11 Families United,” said in a statement Tuesday. “President Biden must do what past presidents have not, which is to demand transparency from Saudi Arabia and accountability for those who supported al Qaeda and the hijackers who murdered our loved ones.”
A major oil producer, Saudi Arabia chairs the Gulf Cooperation Council grouping of oil-producing Arab nations. Biden is seeking ways to relieve high gas prices, which have in large part been pushed higher by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions on Moscow’s oil and gas sector.
The White House has welcomed increased oil production with the hope it would drive down gas prices in the U.S. Biden authorized a historic release of oil from the nation’s strategic reserve of petroleum, and his White House welcomed a decision by the OPEC+ oil cartel to boost its production levels.
While Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration have both said energy security will be part of Biden’s discussions during his visit, the White House has sought to avoid the negative optics of an American president flying to Saudi Arabia in a bid for more oil.
“Of course, he will be — they will discuss energy with the Saudi government,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Monday. “I think what I’m trying to say is to look at this trip as it being only about oil is not — it would be simply wrong to do that.”
The president had even danced around whether he was even going to go to Saudi Arabia at all; “I have no direct plans at the moment,” he said on June 3, after multiple reports said he planned to travel there.
But while Biden once pledged to isolate Saudi Arabia, Jean-Pierre said Tuesday he was “not looking to rupture relationships.”
Asked if Biden would bring up Khashoggi during his meeting with the crown prince, Jean-Pierre would not directly answer.
“Human rights is always part of the conversation in our foreign engagements,” she told reporters on Air Force One, en route to Philadelphia. “So, that will always be the case.”
