Mohammed bin Salman hit out at Joe Biden after the US President confronted him about the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a meeting between the two leaders on Friday.
When asked by US President Joe Biden to assume responsibility for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, crown prince MBS denied responsibility. Joe Biden said that he did believe that MBS, according to intelligence assessments some time before, hence he strongly opposed this claim.
In response to Biden’s comments about Khashoggi, Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters that MBS cited the sexual and physical abuse of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison by US military personnel and the May killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank as incidents that reflected poorly on the US. “The Crown Prince responded to President Biden’s remarks on … Khashoggi after quite clearly — that this crime, while very unfortunate and abhorrent, is something that the kingdom took very seriously (and) acted upon in a way commiserate with its position as a responsible country,” bin Farhan said. “These are issues, mistakes that happen in any country, including the US. The Crown Prince pointed out that the US has made its own mistakes and has taken the necessary action to hold those responsible accountable and address these mistakes just as the kingdom has.”
Adel al-Jubeir, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, voiced his personal opinion during an interview on the CNN program with host Wolf Blitzer.
The Abu Ghraib prison was a US Army detention center for captured Iraqis from the start of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 until the prison’s closure in 2006. In 2004, leaked images from the prison showed the torture and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US military personnel. Eleven US soldiers were convicted of crimes relating to the scandal. Renowned journalist Abu Akleh was killed during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
Abu Akleh had spent decades reporting on the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli occupation. Footage obtained by CNN — corroborated by testimony from eight eyewitnesses, an audio forensic analyst, and an explosive weapons expert — suggested that she was shot dead in a targeted attack by Israeli forces. In the West Bank on Friday, Biden said that the US insists on a “full and transparent accounting” of the killing of the journalist. He called her death an “enormous loss” as he stood alongside Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem.
“I hope her legacy will inspire more young people to carry on her work of reporting the truth and telling stories that are too often overlooked. The United States will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death and will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world,” Biden said. Palestinian officials have criticized the US probe, urging it to do more to hold Israel accountable for her killing.
