WASHINGTON - US president Joe Biden spoke to Saudi Arabia's King Salman ahead of the release of a potentially explosive US intelligence report which is set to accuse his nephew Mohammed bin Salman of complicity in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Mr Biden, who has already seen the intelligence report, is said to have insisted that he speak to King Salman only - and not to Mohammed bin Salman, his nephew and Crown Prince.
During the presidential election campaign, Mr Biden described Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” and claimed its government had “very little social redeeming value".
Mr Biden's insistence in speaking to King Salman is seen as an attempt to sideline 35-year-old Mohammed bin Salman, who is regarded as the de facto ruler of the country.
“The president’s intention, as is the intention of this government, is to recalibrate our engagement with Saudi Arabia,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said this week, signalling that the Crown Prince could become persona non grata under President Biden.
It is understood the purpose of the call was to brief King Salman of the contents of the report, which is due to be declassified imminently.
The CIA has reportedly concluded that the Crown Prince - who was a close ally of Donald Trump - ordered the killing of Mr Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The Washington Post columnist, a critic of the Crown Prince, was murdered and dismembered by a team of assassins.
According to US news outlets, the intelligence report will conclude that the Crown Prince both ordered and approved the murder, which is likely to plunge the two countries into yet more severe diplomatic tensions and drastically reshape their relationship.
The conclusion was reportedly based on intercepted phone calls made by the Crown Prince in the days leading up to the murder.
In addition, according to court documents, it emerged that a pair of private jets which flew a Saudi hit squad to Turkey to murder the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, was owned by a company that had been seized by the Crown Prince.
The United States has pledged to tell the world its conclusions on what role Saudi Arabia's crown prince played in the brutal killing and dismembering of a U.S.-based journalist, but as important is what comes next — what the Biden administration plans to do about it.
Ahead of the release of the declassified U.S. intelligence report, and announcement of any U.S. punitive measures, President Joe Biden spoke to Saudi King Salman on Thursday for the first time since taking office more than a month ago. It was a later-than-usual courtesy call to the Middle East ally, timing seen as reflecting Biden's displeasure. Still, a White House readout made no mention of the killing or the report.
The conversation was overshadowed by the expected imminent release of findings on whether the king's son approved the Oct. 2, 2018, killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's authoritarian consolidation of power, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in 2018 that the prince likely ordered the killing, a finding reported by news media but never officially released.
The White House said Biden on Thursday discussed with King Salman the two countries' “longstanding partnership” and welcomed the kingdom's recent releases of an advocate for women's rights and some of its other political detainees.
The language came in contrast to Biden's pledge as a candidate to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah” over the killing. The White House offered no immediate explanation for his milder tone with the king.
The kingdom’s state-run Saudi Press Agency similarly did not mention Khashoggi’s killing in a report about the call between Biden and King Salman, instead focusing on regional issues such as Iran and the ongoing war in Yemen.
The king and Biden stressed “the depth of the relationship between the two countries and the importance of strengthening the partnership between them to serve their interests and achieve security and stability in the region and the world,” the report said.
