Jamal Khashoggi’s US lawyer sentenced to three years following detention in UAE

Joe Biden flashed a big grin on Friday when reporters asked him if he regretted fist-bumping Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman upon arriving in the country.

Intelligence officials believe Mr bin Salman ordered the gruesome 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident and Washington Post writer who was a US permanent resident.

Mr Biden said he pressed Saudi officials including MBS about what happened to Khashoggi to open a meeting officials had on Friday.

“I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think of it now,” he said. “I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my view crystal clear. I said very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on the issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am. I’ll always stand up for our values.”

President Joe Biden’s first day in Saudi Arabia ended with him unable to avoid a moment he and his advisers had taken great pains to avoid: A televised fist-bump with the man who ordered the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Kashoggi.

The brief encounter between Mr Biden and Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who is widely known by his initials, MBS, took place not long after Mr Biden’s arrival in the kingdom for two days of meetings with Saudi officials and leaders from across the Gulf region.

White House officials had hoped to avoid any image of Mr Biden engaging in a handshake or any sort of greeting with MBS by claiming at the outset of the trip that the nearly 80-year-old president would be eschewing handshakes as a precaution due to rising Covid-19 cases in the region. But Mr Biden scuttled that plan within minutes of his arrival in Israel for the first leg of his trip when he greeted the Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu with a hearty grip-and-grin.

Upon his arrival in Jeddah, the first item on Mr Biden’s agenda was a bilateral meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. But the president was greeted instead by MBS. Presented with the choice between the handshake he wanted to avoid and further upending the US-Saudi relationship, the president chose to compromise with a Covid-conscious fist-bump.

Andrew Feinberg with the full report.

President Biden said it is a “big deal” that “many monthys of quiet diplomacy” have resulted in Saudi Arabia opening its air space to flights from Israel.

“That is a big deal, not only symbolically, but also substantively it’s a big deal,” the president said on Friday. “It means Saudi air space is now open to flights to and and from Israel. It’s the first tangible step on a path on what I hope is braoder normalisation of relations.”

Joe Biden has been accused of attempting to “buy a solution” to Israel’s half-century-long occupation of Palestine as it was revealed that he would be pledgingmore than $300 million (£250m) in aid.

On Friday, the US president met his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem – in the Israeli-controlled West Bank – where people have gathered to protest his arrival.

Lamiat Sabin reports for The Independent.

President Joe Biden has said he remains committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even if “the ground is not ripe” to restart negotiations between the two parties.

Speaking in Bethlehem alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday, Mr Biden said “two states” — one Israeli, one Palestinian — established along Israel’s 1967 borders with “mutually agreed-to [land] swaps” remains the “best way to achieve equal measures of security, prosperity, freedom and democracy for the Palestinians as well as Israelis”.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

Statement from Mrs. Hanan Elatr Khashoggi regarding the meeting of President Biden with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman:

Peter Alexander, NBC News’ chief White House correspondent, was the reporter who shouted the questions to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as to whether he would apologise to the family of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

According to Mr Alexander and other reporters in the room, the crown prince kept his eyes down and a smirk crossed his face.

THe White House press pool was given access to an extended portion of the meeting between President Joe Biden and MBS and their advisers.

Microphones at the meeting table were not turned on and the press was kept at a distance making it difficult to hear what the two men said.

Joe Biden is hinting that a major announcement could come from the Saudis in regards to the oil supply in the coming weeks.

The president said on Friday he had a “good discussion” with the Saudis, who “share that urgency” to address oil supply and gas price issues that have challenged the US and beyond.

“Based on our discussion today, I expect we’ll see further steps in coming weeks,” he said during remarks from Jeddah.

John Bowden has a preview of what that might look like.