Biden changes stance, set to visit `pariah' Saudis
WASHINGTON • President Joe Biden is to visit Saudi Arabia later this month in a diplomatic about-turn after he previously called for the kingdom to be made a pariah on the world stage.
News of the visit comes after the country agreed to boost oil production and to extend a truce in Yemen, but also as the U.S. tries to isolate Russia diplomatically.
The decision follows U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's visit to Saudi Arabia in March, when he held a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for almost two hours.
Johnson said he had raised human rights issues and that “things are changing.” Biden is expected to meet the crown prince, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, who was accused by U.S. intelligence of ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident U.s.-based Saudi journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, in 2018.
During the 2020 election campaign, Biden called for Saudi leaders to be treated as “the pariah that they are,” and he said they would “pay the price” for Khashoggi's death.
Khashoggi, who had criticized the crown prince in the Washington Post, was lured to a Saudi consulate in Istanbul where he was killed. Shortly after taking office, Biden released an intelligence report that suggested the crown prince authorized the attack.
The U. S. president imposed visa restrictions on Saudis accused of threatening dissidents and also scaled back support for a Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen. The U.S. is facing rapidly rising gas prices, which many voters blame on Biden.
White House officials see it as a contributing factor to the president's low approval rating. If gas prices and inflation remain high, it will help Republicans in midterm elections in November.
On Thursday, Saudi Arabia agreed to increase oil production by more than expected. U.S. officials also said the country had been supportive in diplomacy that led to an extension of a truce between Yemen's Riyadh-backed government and Houthi rebels.
In a statement Biden said: “Saudi Arabia demonstrated courageous leadership by taking initiatives early on to endorse and implement terms of the Un-led truce.”
Biden is also keen to counter recent visits to Saudi Arabia by Russian and Chinese officials. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was there this week. The visit is expected to happen around the time Biden heads to Europe for NATO and G7 summits.
A senior official said “much” of the concern over Saudi Arabia's actions “predated our administration.”
Biden refused to confirm the trip, but he said: “Look, I'm not going to change my view on human rights. But, as president of the United States, my job is to bring peace if I can, and that's what I'm going to try to do.”
The decision about whether the president should visit to the crown prince divided members of the Biden administration, many of whom preferred to keep the autocracy at a distance after former president Donald Trump's remarkably close rapport with the kingdom, a relationship that infuriated human rights advocates.
But advocates for keeping close ties with Riyadh ultimately won out after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The conflict's impact on oil and gas prices exacerbated the Biden administration's concerns about its relationship with Saudi Arabia, which had repeatedly rebuffed U.S. requests to increase oil production.
A meeting with Mohammed was seen as a necessary act of realpolitik to lower energy prices and inflation, despite Biden's campaign promise to further isolate Riyadh.
Whether the move will substantially lower the price of oil is far from clear.