United States President Joe Biden is on his trip to the Middle East for the very first time as president of America. The trip started on July 13 and was reported to stop on July 16 making his visit to Saudi Arabia a final stop.
On his visit to Saudi Arabia, while addressing his speech, hours later the meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince, president Biden raised the 2018 murder of US-based journalist Khashoggi.
He said “I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think of it now,”
“I said, very straightforwardly, for an American President to be silent on the issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” Biden continued, The Hill reported.
“I’ll always stand up for our values,” he added.
However, responding to the questions raised by the media, Biden later said that the Saudi Crown Prince told him he was not “personally responsible” for Khashoggi’s murder.
“I indicated I thought he was,” Biden said. “He said he was not personally responsible for it, and he took action against those who were responsible.”
Biden earlier on Friday was criticised and there was an outrage seen when he was photographed fist bumping the Saudi Crown Prince, who the US intelligence community concluded approved Khashoggi’s 2018 murder, reported The Hill citing sources.
