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

President Joe Biden on his trip to Saudi Arabia will encourage peace and press for a more integrated Middle East.

“We will be covering a host of bilateral and regional issues, really capping many months of diplomacy and positioning the United States and our partners for the future in a manner that advances our interests and theirs,” a senior Biden administration official told Reuters.

The Saudi envoy said US-Saudi efforts to ensure peace and security should focus on enhancing cooperation and “reinforcing a rules-based system” to confront the “vision of chaos promoted by Iran”.

Gulf states share Israel’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes and Tehran’s proxies in the region where Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran have vied for influence.

During his visit to Israel on the first leg of the Middle East trip, Mr Biden and prime minister Yair Lapid signed a joint pledge to deny Iran nuclear arms, which Tehran denies seeking.

US 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.

“We’ve laid out for the people for the leadership of Iran, what we’re willing to accept in order to get back to the JCPOA,” Mr Biden said. “We’re waiting for the response. When that will come, I’m not certain. But we are not going to wait forever.”

Andrew Feinberg has more on the president’s comments.

When Joe Biden travels to Bethlehem he will be greeted by large billboards emblazoned with the words: “Mr President, this is apartheid,” alongside a map of what is left of the disconnected Palestinian territories — a stunt arranged by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.

Richard Hall reports on how some of the world’s leading human rights groups have condemned Israel for committing what the president opposed so fiercely as a senator in the 1980s and how he is accused of ignoring it today.

In an article exclusively for The Independent, Aida Touma-Sliman, a member of the Israeli Knesset has a plea for Joe Biden: “We need to talk about the Palestinian people, even if you’d rather not.”

US president Joe Biden has announced $100m in American assistance for east Jerusalem hospitals that serve as “the backbone” of healthcare for Palestinians.

He spoke on Friday during a visit to the Augusta Victoria Hospital, which provides advanced medical care including radiation treatment for cancer patients and paediatric kidney dialysis to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

The funding is subject to approval by the US Congress and would be paid out over several years.

Mr Biden called the six hospitals “the backbone of the Palestinian health care system”.

The Iranian military warned the United States and Israel on Friday against threatening Tehran with force, local media reported after US president Joe Biden said he would use force as a last resort to prevent the country from getting a nuclear weapon.

“The Americans and Zionists (Israel) know very well the price for using the word ‘force against Iran’,” Brigadier General Abolfazl Shekarchi, spokesman for the Iranian armed forces, was quoted as saying by state media.

“Biden must have been drowsy when he threatened Iran,” he said, adding: “Watch your soldiers’ pants - they might get wet in the Persian Gulf!”

Asked by Israeli television this week whether his past statements that he would prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon meant he would use force against Iran, Biden replied: “If that was the last resort, yes.”

On Thursday, Mr Biden and Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid signed a joint pledge to deny Iran nuclear arms, an apparent move toward accommodating Israel’s calls for a “credible military threat” by world powers.

Iran denies seeking seeks nuclear weapons, saying that its nuclear program is for solely peaceful purposes.

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.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

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

Palestinian journalists covering president Joe Biden’s visit to the occupied West Bank are wearing black T-shirts bearing the image of slain Palestinian-American correspondent Shereen Abu Akleh.

The popular Al-Jazeera correspondent was killed in May while covering an Israeli military raid in the West Bank.

The Palestinians, including colleagues who were with her, say that Israeli soldiers intentionally killed her. Israel says its troops were in a battle with Palestinian gunmen, and it’s not clear who fired the deadly bullet.

US experts who inspected the bullet recently determined that Israeli fire likely killed her. But without providing evidence, they said there was no reason to believe the shooting was intentional.

President Joe Biden arrived in the biblical town of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.

Mr Biden was given a bouquet of flowers by a pair of Palestinian children as he arrived. He held his hand over his heart as a Palestinian band played the US national anthem before he entered Mr Abbas’ office.

The brief meeting with the Palestinian leader comes after two days of nonstop talks with Israeli leaders. Mr Biden is then to continue to Saudi Arabia for talks with Arab leaders.

In the West Bank, Mr Biden is expected to announce some $200 million in additional assistance to the Palestinians, after pledging $100 million to hospitals that serve Palestinians in east Jerusalem earlier Friday.