"The Saudi foreign minister said he didn’t hear you accuse the crown prince of Khashoggi's murder. Is he telling the truth?" a reporter asked Biden when he landed outside the White House.
The US president responded with a "no".
"Why don’t you talk about something that matters?" Biden went on to tell reporters after dodging another question about his fist bump with MBS.
Earlier on Friday, US President Joe Biden said that he had "raised" the issue of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder during his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), "making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think about it now." The Saudi foreign minister, however, was quick to claim that he "didn't hear" that any such exchange took place.
"The president mentioned that the US is committed to human rights because since the founding fathers wrote the Constitution (…) this is part of the agenda of every American president," the Saudi foreign minister noted.
Biden visited the Middle East on July 13-16, stopping at Israel, the West Bank, and Saudi Arabia. He discussed regional security, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and unsuccessfully tried to persuade Riyadh to boost oil production in the wake of soaring energy prices.
Read more:
Bin Salman and Khashoggi's nightmare
MBS approved operation against Khashoggi: US intelligence report
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