The newly elected US President, Joe Biden is scheduled to call Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ahead of the release of a US intelligence report on the Khashoggi murder. Jamal Khashoggi was a journalist with the Washington Post and a critic of Saudi government policies. He was brutally murdered and dismembered in the Saudi Consulate of Istanbul in October 2018. Some of the US media outlets had claimed the involvement of Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) in the murder.
The unclassified report to be released is also implying that the Saudi Crown Prince, MBS is involved in the Khashoggi murder. As a candidate, Joe Biden had branded Saudi Arabia as a ‘Pariah State’, that needs to be punished for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the killing of civilians in airstrikes in Yemen. Now, Joe Biden is expected to make a call to the 85-year-old King Salman, and not to his son MBS.
According to the report by Axios’ Barak Ravid, the Saudi government has been trying to send signals to the Biden government for cooperating in Yemen’s civil war and to improve human rights. They are doing it to avoid the crisis with the new administration.
On Tuesday, the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that they are going to recalibrate their relationship with Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Kingdom’s relationship under Trump’s presidency was different and Joe Biden might not necessarily be as protective as the former President was towards MBS. Under Trump’s presidency, the case of Khashoggi was almost repressed, but with Joe Biden elected, the case has not only reopened but the reports involving MBS are expected to release soon.
