The President of the United States visited in Israel, Palestine and Saudi Arabia, where he was accused of denying himself for a few barrels of oil.
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The end of a three-day diplomatic visit to the Middle East. US President Joe Biden left Saudi Arabia on Saturday July 16, after a highly controversial visit during which he tried to reassert US influence in the region.
The White House tenant, who began his Middle East tour on Wednesday with a visit to Israel and Palestine, spent less than 24 hours in Saudi Arabia. He met several heads of state and officials in the region, including King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In a speech delivered in Jeddah, Joe Biden promised that the United States “would not turn away” from the Middle East leaving “a vacuum that could be filled by China, Russia or Iran”. He told an audience of Arab leaders that his country “invested to build a better future in the region”.
The US president has been criticized for his visit to the Gulf monarchy, which is accused of serious human rights violations. He claimed that “the future would belong to countries (…) whose citizens can question and criticize their leaders without fear of reprisals”.
The trip, however, remains marked by the image of a president exchanging a fist “check” with Mohammed bin Salman, accused by American intelligence of being the sponsor of the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Joe Biden had moreover promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah”.
The American president assured on Friday that he had mentioned this case “At the beginning” of his meeting with the crown prince, claiming to have been “couldn’t be clearer”. But activists have accused Joe Biden of denying himself for a few barrels of oil, at a time when the rise in the gallon of gasoline is a considerable issue in the United States.