Friday 17 June 2022 06:16 PM Biden insists he is NOT meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman trends now
President Joe Biden insisted on Friday he will not be meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he's in Saudi Arabia next month.
He made the comment when he asked if he'd condemn the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden said he would handle the Khashoggi issue with the Saudis 'the same way I've been handling it.'
He then said he wouldn't be meeting with MBS, as the crown prince is known.
'I'm not going to meet with MBS. I'm going to an international meeting and he's going to be part of it,' Biden told reporters at the White House before he left to spend the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Biden will be in Jeddah in mid-July to attend a meeting of the GCC plus 3 summit to talk oil production. While there he will meet with the aging Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The White House has noted that Salman's team, which includes his son and heir MBS, will simply be a part of that meeting. MBS will also be a part of the GCC plus 3 summit, which Saudi chairs.
But the kingdom said that MBS and Biden would be meeting unilaterally.
'The crown prince and President Biden will hold official talks that will focus on various areas of bilateral cooperation and joint efforts to address regional and global challenges,' the country said in a statement when Biden's trip was announced.
President Joe Biden insisted he will not be meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he's in Saudi Arabia next month
Biden previously called the crown prince a 'pirah' after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (above)
But White House deputy spokesman John Kirby said Biden will meet with the King and the meeting with MBS will be a part of that.
'He's going to meet bilaterally with King Salman and King Salman's team and the crown prince is part of that team. I suspect he'll see the crown prince in the context of the meetings. He's grateful for the king's willingness to host the GCC plus three. He's looking forward to, again, a wide scope of discussions,' Kirby said on MSNBC's Morning Joe the day the Saudi trip was announced.
But the White House has been dodging questions on whether President Biden will bring up Khashoggi's murder when he sees MSB next month.
'We're not overlooking any content that happened before when the president took office,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said
