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

All times Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

11amThe president participates in a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi of Iraq

11.40amThe president participates in a bilateral meeting with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of Egypt

12.15pmThe president participates in a bilateral meeting with Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates

12.45pmThe president attends a GCC +3 Leaders Welcome Reception

12.55pmThe president participates in a family photo with GCC +3 leaders

1.15pmThe president attends the GCC +3 Summit Meeting

3pmThe president participates in a working lunch

4.45pmThe president departs Jeddah, Saudi Arabia en route Mildenhall, United Kingdom, for a refuelling stop before proceeding on to Washington, DC, with expected arrival time of 12.40am ET on Sunday.

President Joe Biden said that he would take executive action on climate change if Democrats’ proposed spending bill doesn’t include clean energy provisions, but he did not mention Senator Joe Manchin, who has been vocal about his opposition to a larger bill including climate provisions and tax increases.

The president is currently traveling in the Middle East while Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer negotiates with Mr Manchin.

Eric Garcia reports.

Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, described Joe Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia as “heartbreaking,” accusing the U.S. president of backing down from his pledge of prioritizing human rights.

In an interview with The Associated Press in Istanbul a day before Biden travels to Saudi Arabia Friday to meet with the crown prince, Cengiz said Biden should press Saudi Arabia — a country that she described as a “terrible ally” — to embrace a human rights agenda. She also wants Biden to seek more answers from Saudi authorities over what happened to Khashoggi’s remains.

President Joe Biden on Thursday warned that the negotiations meant to bring Iran back into the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action nuclear agreement cannot be allowed to drag on indefinitely.

Speaking at a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, Mr Biden was asked if he’d set a deadline for when he might walk away from the talks, which the US is hoping will re-start the agreement which former president Donald Trump walked away from in 2018.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

President Joe Biden on Thursday offered a wholehearted endorsement to the Abraham Accords, a series of normalisation agreements between Israel and several Middle East monarchies brokered during the Trump administration. Mr Biden added that he would work to expand the efforts under his predecessor to deepen ties between Israel and its neighbours.

“We will also continue building on the Abraham Accords, which I strongly support because they deepen, they deepen Israel’s integration into the broader region and establish lasting ties for business, cooperation, and tourism,” Mr Biden said during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

It was reported on Thursday that President Joe Biden helped cement an agreement between Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt that would resolve a long-standing dispute over a pair of islands in the Red Sea and allow Israeli aircraft to transit through Saudi airspace for the first time in history.

According to Axios, the agreement would allow the Saudis to take full control of Tiran and Sanafir islands, which have been a demilitarised zone since Egypt and Israel signed the 1979 peace treaty negotiated with the help of then-president Jimmy Carter.

Mr Biden later issued the following statement before flying to Saudi Arabia on Friday:

Saudi Arabia’s historic decision to open its airspace for all civilian planes, including those flying to and from Israel, is an important step towards building a more integrated and stable Middle East region. While this opening has long been discussed, now, thanks to months of steady diplomacy between my Administration and Saudi Arabia, it is finally a reality. Today, I will be the first president of the United States to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. As we mark this important moment, Saudi Arabia’s decision can help build momentum toward Israel’s further integration into the region, including with Saudi Arabia. I will do all that I can, through direct diplomacy and leader-to-leader engagement, to keep advancing this groundbreaking process.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reputation as a brazen leader who has ruthlessly silenced critics and dissent will cast a shadow over his meeting on Friday with US President Joe Biden.

The royal has sidelined top princes who could pose a threat and overseen Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. The 2018 killing of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul still looms large — though the prince is credited with pushing through once-unthinkable changes, allowing women to drive and travel freely, permitting concerts, opening movie theaters and de-fanging the once-feared religious police.

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Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota criticised President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, saying it sends the wrong message about the United States’ position on human rights.

The Minnesota Democrat and member of the Squad, who is a refugee from Somalia, said Mr Biden’s trip goes back on his word that he would make Saudi Arabia a “pariah nation” after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Eric Garcia reports from Capitol Hill.

President Joe Biden on Friday arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for two days of meetings with Saudi officials and leaders from across the Gulf region, less than one day after the kingdom announced it would open its’ airspace to all carriers, including those departing from Israel.

Mr Biden arrived aboard Air Force One at 5.53 pm local time, just under two hours after taking off from Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. The president’s plane was the second-ever flight to travel directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia, the first such flight having been made by a charter plane carrying the White House press corps several hours earlier.

Nevertheless he was the first US president to make such a trip.

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 pledging more 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 gathered to protest his arrival.

Lamiat Sabin reports.