Tuesday 14 June 2022 06:34 AM Biden WILL visit Saudi Arabia: President to meet leader MBS next month trends now
President Joe Biden will visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on July 15 and 16 in order to repair the relations between the US and the second largest holder of petroleum reserves in the world.
The president will meet with Mohammed bin Salman and other 'Gulf leaders' to discuss Iran, Yemen and oil prices, reports NBC News' Andrea Mitchell.
The trip comes as gas prices in the US continue to surge, a key domestic issue Biden hopes to tackle as midterm elections loom.
Over the weekend, the national average gas price officially reached $5 a gallon for the first time in American history.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest producer of oil, and as a key member of OPEC plays a large part in setting oil prices worldwide.
Mitchell also reported that one of Biden's goals was to repair the relationship between Biden and bin Salman, after the president called the nation a 'pariah' following the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamaal Khashoggi, whose death has been widely blamed on Saudi Arabia.
President Biden was also quoted as saying that another of his goals was to repair the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia - which does does not currently recognize the U.S. ally's existence.
The president will meet with Mohammed bin Salman and other 'Gulf leaders' to discuss Iran, Yemen and oil prices
In September 2021 when Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to the Kingdom to meet with bin Salman, the crown prince began shouting at Sullivan when Khashoggi's murder was brought up
The White House has said Biden feels that the crown prince is a 'pariah' for his role in the killing of a political opponent, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in 2018
During the Trump presidency in 2019, Biden referred to bin Salman as a 'pariah' in the aftermath of Khashoggi's killing.
The Washington Post journalist was murdered in Turkey in 2018. The CIA has concluded with 'high confidence' that bin Salman ordered the assassination.
Khashoggi's murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul tainted the crown prince's image as a reformist.
Earlier in June, the White House announced that Biden's planned June visits to Israel and Saudi Arabia were being pushed back until July.
The last reported meetings between US officials and bin Salman have not gone well.
In September 2021 when Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to the Kingdom to meet with bin Salman, the crown prince began shouting at Sullivan when Khashoggi's murder was brought up, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
In February, Biden asked the Saudis to increase their oil production in return for military assistance in Yemen - a request that was turned down.
More recently, in April 2022, CIA Director William Burns met with bin Salman to ask about increasing the Saudi's oil production and about weapons purchases the country had made from China.
Shortly after the meeting, the Saudis announced that they were not planning to increase production and were sticking to their current timetable, denying Burns' request.
