Biden should not visit Saudi, meet crown prince, Democratic Rep. Schiff says
By Arshad Mohammed
(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden mustn’t go to Saudi Arabia or meet its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who authorized an operation to seize or kill murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in response to U.S. intelligence, a number one Democratic lawmaker mentioned on Sunday.
Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote opinion columns for the Washington Put up vital of the prince’s insurance policies, was killed and dismembered in 2018 by operatives linked to the prince within the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul.
Requested if Biden, who on Friday acknowledged the chance he might go to Saudi Arabia quickly, ought to go to the oil exporter and meet the crown prince, its de facto ruler, Consultant Adam Schiff mentioned: “In my opinion, no.
“I would not go. I would not shake his hand. That is somebody who butchered an American resident, reduce him up into items and in probably the most horrible and premeditated manner,” Schiff, who chairs the Home of Representatives intelligence committee, instructed CBS’s “Face the Nation” program.
Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement by the crown prince within the killing and rejected a February 2021 U.S. intelligence report that assessed that he “authorized an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to seize or kill” Khashoggi.
“Till Saudi Arabia makes a radical change when it comes to (its) human rights, I would not need something to do with him,” Schiff mentioned of the crown prince, typically referred to as MBS.
He additionally rejected arguments that Biden ought to go to Saudi Arabia to attempt to get it to extend oil manufacturing and decrease U.S. gasoline costs, an issue for Biden and his fellow Democrats forward of the November midterm congressional elections.
Whereas saying he understood Saudi affect over oil costs, Schiff mentioned he considered that as “a compelling argument” for the USA to wean itself off oil “so we do not have despots and murderers calling the photographs.”
(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Enhancing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker)
