According to a report released, the Biden administration is working to completely overhaul its relations with Saudi Arabia.
According to a US-based news outlet, which cited anonymous senior US sources, the decision to “reset” ties would effectively move the US past the Kingdom’s gruesome murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, for which US President Joe Biden pledged to make Riyadh a “pariah.”
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was named in a public intelligence report issued by the Trump administration last year as the person responsible for Khashoggi’s assassination in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. His body has never been found, and it is thought that he was dismembered before being burned in acid or a big incinerator.
However, in the face of record-high gas prices at home and international efforts to hold Russia accountable for its war in Ukraine, Biden is ready to move on and rebuild relations with the Kingdom and its de facto ruler.
“Both parties have determined that we need to get past it for the purpose of attaining peace and security in the Middle East,” one official told the news agency, referring to Khashoggi’s assassination.
The individuals went on to say that the Saudis consider Khashoggi’s assassination to be a thing of the past, and that they have told Washington so.
Biden is scheduled to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia next month, following a postponement of a trip that had been planned to coincide with the president’s impending trip to Europe.
