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White House: Biden will meet with Saudi crown prince

A White House spokesman has said US President Joe Biden will hold bilateral talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his leadership team, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), who is the de facto ruler of the kingdom.

Biden, who once called for Saudi Arabia to be made a pariah, has previously denounced Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, who was accused by American intelligence of ordering the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A team of Saudi operatives murdered Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2, 2018.

White House spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday Biden will visit Saudi Arabia next month despite concerns about human rights by Saudi leaders.

Kirby confirmed that Biden’s trip will include a meeting with MBS.

“The president will sit down in a bilateral meeting with the Saudi king and his leadership team,” Kirby said. “As you know, the crown prince is on that leadership team. So he will be a part of that meeting.”

“So certainly, the president will be seeing the crown prince in the context of that larger bilateral discussion,” he added.

Biden’s visit to the kingdom comes as he is trying to find ways to lower US gasoline prices. The group of oil-producing nations called OPEC+, led by Saudi Arabia, recently agreed to increase oil production to help bring down prices.

The price for a gallon has doubled since Biden took office in January last year, but that same gallon costs $4.75 on Thursday, according to data from the non-profit American Automobile Association (AAA). The association said the average gallon of gas cost only $2.39 during the first week of Biden’s presidency.

The gasoline prices are a problem for Biden and his fellow Democrats ahead of the November midterm congressional elections.

Since the beginning of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the ensuing spikes in oil prices, the US president has made great efforts to control fuel prices as well as isolate Russia.

Many analysts believe that Biden’s current move to travel to Saudi Arabia is in line with the effort.

 

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