Joe Biden fist-bumps ‘pariah’ prince in U-turn bid for Saudi oil

Joe Biden greeted the Saudi prince considered responsible for the assassination of a dissident journalist, in the hopes of lowering gas prices ahead of US elections.

Joe Biden fist bumps Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at Al-Salam Palace. Picture: AFP

US president Joe Biden completed a dramatic turnaround by delivering a friendly greeting to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The hotly anticipated fist-bump came after Biden, who promised to make Saudi Arabia “pay the price” for human rights abuses, released a CIA intelligence report as soon as he took office which directly blamed the prince for killing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“And make them, in fact, the pariah that they are,” Biden said before taking office, adding there is “very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.”

Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fist bump. Picture: AFP

The pair met at Al-Salam Palace in the Red Sea port of Jeddah. Picture: AFP

But the president found redeeming value in Saudi reserves of oil as the war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia inflated the cost of energy to record levels, which threaten his Democratic Party’s chances in November midterm elections.

The fist bump, previewed by the White House as a way to avoid Covid but seen as a compromise to a more chummy handshake, was beamed across state television in Saudi Arabia.

Station Al-Ekhbariya showed Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto leader known as MBS, escorting Biden into Jeddah’s Al-Salam palace.

The highly symbolic meeting, sitting across from Prince Mohammed and King Salman, for a “working session” as Washington pressed the world’s largest exporter of crude oil to produce more barrels to counter soaring petrol prices.

Officials met amid soaring gas prices, with the Middle East country pressed by Washington to produce more barrels of oil. Picture: AFP

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is pleased with meeting Biden, who called the Kingdom a ‘pariah’ over its human rights abuses. Picture: AFP

Biden was not expected to press the Kingdom on the killing of a Washington Post journalist at the Saudi embassy in Turkey, where he was lured with the promise of a visa before being killed, dismembered, and smuggled out in bags.

The US intelligence report that Biden released within the first month of his presidency detailed the horrific killing and pointed the finger directly at Prince Mohammed, assessing that he “approved an operation” to capture or kill Khashoggi.

“We base this assessment on the Crown Prince’s control of decision making in the Kingdom since 2017, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman’s protective detail in the operation, and the Crown Prince’s support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi,” the report said.

CCTV footage shows journalist Jamal Khashoggi (R) arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. Picture: AFP

Jamal Khashoggi arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate and a different man leaving with a fake beard and similar outfit to that worn by Khashoggi. Picture: AFP

CCTV footage shows a Saudi team suspected of involvement in Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance at the airport in Istanbul. Picture; AFP

“The Crown Prince viewed Khashoggi as a threat to the Kingdom and broadly supported using violent measures if necessary to silence him,” the report states.”

Biden was the first US leader to fly directly into Saudi Arabia from Israel, where the so-called Covid protocols were quickly discarded for lengthy handshakes with the Jewish Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog.

BIDEN’S ‘HORROR’ HOLOCAUST INSULT

Joe Biden kicked off his first tour of the Middle East as president with a shocking gaffe by calling the Holocaust “an honour” as he landed in Israel.

Speaking to the Jewish crowd, the president outlined his plan to go to the “hallowed ground” of the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem: “To keep alive the truth and honour of the Holocaust”.

The president corrected himself with what seemed to be the intended line, “the horror of the Holocaust”.

“I will once more return to the hallowed ground of Yad Vashem to honour the 6 million Jewish lives that were stolen in a genocide and continue -- which we must do every, every day -- continue to bear witness,” he said before making the gaffe.

US President Joe Biden made an unfortunate error in calling the Holocaust an honour. Picture: AFP.

He quickly corrected himself to say the Holocaust was a ‘horror’, not an honour. Picture: AFP

After correcting himself, Biden continued by adding the world must “honour those we lost so that we never, ever forget that lesson”.

“And to continue our shared, unending work to fight the poison of anti-Semitism wherever it raises its ugly head,” he concluded.

Biden laid a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial before meeting with two women who survived the Nazi death camps.

Wearing a yarmulke, Biden got down on one knee to directly address the women, Rena Quint and Giselle Cycowicz.

Biden, joined by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog, Biden signed the visitors’ book at the memorial.

“It is a great honour to be back -- back to my emotional home,” Biden wrote in the book, the Times of Israel reported.

“We must never, ever forget -- because hatred is never defeated -- it only hides. We must teach every succeeding generation that it can happen again unless we remember. That is what I teach my children and grandchildren. Never forget.”

US President Joe Biden speaks to Holocaust survivors Giselle Cycowicz and Rena Quint Picture: AFP

US President Joe Biden stands before the Eternal Flame at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. Picture: AFP

Biden and his Israeli counterpart later signed the “Jerusalem Declaration, a joint pledge to deny Iran nuclear arms in a show of unity. It came after Biden told Israel media he was open to using force against Iran as a “last resort”.

“We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” Biden told a news conference following the signing of the declaration.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said that Biden’s Israel visit would “not create security for the Zionists in any way”.

“I tell the Americans and their regional allies that the Iranian nation will not accept any crisis or insecurity in the region, and that any mistake made in this region will be met with a harsh and regrettable response,” he later added in televised remarks.

Joe Biden poses and Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem. Picture: AFP

After meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Friday, Air Force One will make the first publicly acknowledged direct flight between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Biden is scheduled to meet Arab leaders to discuss volatile oil prices, and will seek to persuade Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to drive down prices, which have fuelled US inflation to the highest levels in decades.

The Saudi Arabia visit is the major focus of the tour and comes after he branded the kingdom a “pariah” over the 2018 murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The re-engagement with the energy-rich country after the harsh criticism is seen as an example of the extremely unstable oil markets, rattled by the war in Ukraine.