{O/C} U.S. President Joe Biden is in the firing line after sharing a friendly fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and discussing raising the global oil flow.
This, despite calling Saudi Arabia a "pariah" on the campaign trail for president.
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With this civil fist bump between Biden and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the chips are hardly down for Saudi Arabia, a country he pledged on the campaign trail to take on for flagrant human rights violations.
But that's already sparked a disputatious backlash. Republican Adam Schiff tweeted, "one fist bump is worth a thousand words."
While rumours surfaced that Biden was exploiting his trump card, he insisted he still broached the notorious murder of Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 with the Crown Prince.
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JOE BIDEN, United States President:
I said, very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on the issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am.
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The Crown Prince elucidated he wasn't personally behind the slaying.
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He basically said that he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated I thought he was. He said he was not personally responsible for it and he took action against those who were responsible.
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And he tossed aside rumours he was lenient with the prince given the fist bump in addition to spending three hours inside the palace.
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I didn't come here to meet with the Crown Prince. I came here to meet with the GCC, the United Nations to deal with the security and the needs of the free world, in particular the United States, and not leave a vacuum here.
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As Saudi Arabia reopened its airspace to Israeli flights, Biden is heading one step further by keeping both his and Saudi Arabia's powders dry on decimating Iran's nuclear aspirations and ballooning gas prices.
Biden and other Gulf Cooperation Council members are due to converge upon Jeddah for a summit before he wraps up his first tour through the Middle East aimed at solidifying America's longstanding commitment to the region as U.S. President.
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