Saudi crown prince has called out US president over Washington’s own poor record of human right abuses and lectured US president of Washington’s own poor record of assorted “mistakes” such as the torture by US soldiers in Abu Ghraib.
While Saudi Arabia admitted its “mistakes” made in the Khashoggi affair, it has “taken all measures to prevent similar mistakes in the future,” the crown prince, commonly referred-to by the acronym MBS, was quoted as having told Biden.
MBS also apparently tried to downplay the significance of the murder of the journalist, who was slain and subsequently dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2018, pointing a finger at the US’ own questionable record of human rights abuses. He also brought up the recent killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, slain during an Israeli raid in the West bank.
“In the same year, similar regrettable incidents took place and other journalists were killed in other parts around the world,” the crown prince said. “The United States also made a number of mistakes like the incident of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and others.”
All countries around the world, including the US and Saudi Arabia, share values that they agree on and have others that they disagree on, the crown prince suggested. Imposing said values on others, however, is not exactly a good idea, he went on, pointing to Washington’s failures in the Middle East.
“However, trying to impose those values by force could have the opposite effect, as happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the US was unsuccessful,” he said.
The 2018 murder in Turkey, which the CIA claimed was ordered by Mohammed bin Salman himself, left a major dent in the US-Saudi relations. Holding the kingdom as a whole and MBS personally accountable for the incident was among the primary talking points for Biden during his presidential campaign, when he had promised to make the country a “pariah” on the international stage.
Speaking to reporters after his meeting with MBS, Biden insisted he does not regret targeting the crown prince, and raised the issue “at the top of the meeting” making his stance “crystal clear.”
“I said very straightforwardly: For an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights, is this consistent with – inconsistent with who we are and who I am? I’ll always stand up for our values,” Biden stated RT reports
Brett Wilkins continues the report that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly told President Joe Biden during their meeting in Jeddah Friday that while the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is “regrettable,” U.S. hands are not clean and other journalists are killed with impunity.
“Bin Salman’s smarmy reply underlines the way in which the U.S. government’s lawlessness… and its weird commitment to Israeli apartheid… undermine its moral standing.”
Bin Salman specifically mentioned the torture scandal at the U.S. military prison at Abu Ghraib, Iraq and the killing of Palestinian-American Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces in May, according to Al Aribiya, which is owned by the Saudi government.
The de facto Saudi ruler also said that the CIA—which along with other American intelligence agencies concluded that Khashoggi’s gruesome 2018 murder was likely ordered by bin Salman—makes mistakes, as it did when it falsely claimed Iraq had an active weapons of mass destruction program prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and occupation.
“Bin Salman’s smarmy reply underlines the way in which the U.S. government’s lawlessness in misadventures like invading Iraq and its weird commitment to Israeli apartheid practices against the Palestinians undermine its moral standing to argue for ‘a rules-based global order,'” Informed Comment publisher Juan Cole observed. “Almost no one in the U.S. dares say this, but for the rest of the world it is a commonplace insight.”
Saudi official gives MBS's response to Biden when he asked about Khashoggi. "You can't impose your values on us by force. Remember Abu Ghraib? What have you done about Shireen Abu Akleh?". Yes MBS literally said that to Biden. https://t.co/9DQDrWVM2L
— İyad el-Baghdadi | إياد البغدادي (@iyad_elbaghdadi) July 16, 2022
Cole wrote:
The U.S. government didn’t care about the Israelis assassinating Shireen Abu Akleh, (and many other unlawful killings of Palestinian journalists and just ordinary Palestinian noncombatants) and it does not stop the U.S. from forking over to Israel $4 billion a year in foreign aid, a tax on all Americans in support of Greater Israel expansionism. So why should Biden, bin Salman wants to know, boycott Saudi Arabia over the killing of a single journalist?
Biden has come under fire from progressives for his willingness to sideline Saudi Arabia’s abysmal human rights record and war crimes in Yemen in service of U.S. strategic and energy interests.
Appearing Sunday on ABC‘s “This Week,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who is co-sponsoring a new resolution to end U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen—said he did not think Biden should have visited Saudi Arabia.
NEW: Sen. Bernie Sanders tells @MarthaRaddatz that Pres. Biden should not have gone to Saudi Arabia.
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 17, 2022
“I just don’t believe we should be maintaining a warm relationship with a dictatorship like that.” https://t.co/yRoCDrJ884 pic.twitter.com/0eyn9R3CKv
“You have a leader of that country who was involved in the murder of a Washington Post journalist,” Sanders said. “I don’t think that that type of government should be rewarded with a visit by the president of the United States.”
“I just don’t believe we should be maintaining a warm relationship with a dictatorship like that,” he added.