Biden likely to meet Saudi crown prince, reversing campaign vow, in Mideast visit

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia in July, where he is expected to break with his campaigntrail rhetoric by holding a face-to-face meeting with the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The crown prince outraged Washington nearly four years ago by ordering, according to U.S. intelligence services, the murder of a dissident journalist and Virginia resident.

Biden’s planned visit to Jeddah represents a reversal from his 2020 presidential campaign promise to make the crown prince a “pariah” for ordering the 2018 assassination of

Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate in Turkey.

“We can expect the president to see the crown prince,” said a senior administration official briefing reporters in a Monday evening background call on the upcoming trip.

Biden’s first visit to the Middle East as president will take place July 13 to 16 and will begin with stops in Israel and the occupied West Bank before wrapping up in Saudi Arabia.

While a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed is not set in stone, it seems hard for Biden to avoid coming into contact with him. A major reason for the Saudi Arabia trip will be for Biden to participate in a summit meeting in Jeddah of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation

Council and three other Arab states: Iraq, Jordan and Egypt.

“While in Saudi Arabia, the president will also discuss a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues with his counterparts. These include support to the U.N.-mediated truce in Yemen, which has led to the most peaceful period there since war began seven years ago,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “He will also discuss means for expanding regional economic and security cooperation, including new and promising infrastructure and climate initiatives, as well as deterring threats from Iran, advancing human rights, and ensuring global energy and food security.”