US President Joe Biden, who met Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, has “the blood” of the crown prince’s next victim on his hands, the fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist murdered in 2018, tweeted on Friday.
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Imagining what her companion would have tweeted, Hatice Cengiz wrote while addressing Mr Biden: “Is this your way of holding accountable those responsible for my murder? The blood of the next victim of MBS (nickname of Mohammed bin Salman, Ed) is on your hands”.
Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post critical of Saudi power, was killed and dismembered on October 2, 2018 at the premises of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul when he came to collect the papers necessary for his marriage to his Turkish fiancée.
After his assassination, Joe Biden had promised to reduce the Gulf monarchy to “pariah” status and declassified a report concluding that the crown prince had “validated” this murder.
The president, however, arrived at the royal palace in Jeddah on Friday, where he greeted Mohammed bin Salman with a “check” of the fist, a form of greeting widespread since COVID-19.
“The first check-in between President Biden and Mohammad bin Salman was worse than a handshake – it was shameful,” said Washington Post managing editor Fred Ryan.
The cordial gesture “reflects a level of intimacy and ease that offers MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been seeking,” he added in a statement.