The US president faced backlash for the informal way he greeted the kingdom’s de facto ruler upon his arrival in Jeddah on Friday. Critics said the punch was inappropriate given US suspicions that the crown prince was responsible for the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi – and Biden’s subsequent pledge during his 2020 campaign to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah “.
But Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan downplayed the dispute in an interview with CNN’s Nick Robertson hours after the president left Jeddah on Saturday.
“I see the image as a victory for President Biden,” bin Farhan said.
“He got out of it a meeting with a key leader in the region. He got out of it, I think, a revitalization of the strategic partnership between Saudi Arabia and the United States.”
Bin Farhan said it was “quite normal” that the leaders had exchanged “pleasures”, adding: “I don’t know why we got into a fist fight”.
Biden came to Jeddah to seek solutions to one of his main political problems at home — skyrocketing gas prices — as diplomacy with Saudi Arabia in the Middle East was seen as one of the few avenues he could take to oust prices that are burdening millions of Americans. Bin Farhan said the crown prince was open to increasing Saudi Arabia’s oil capacity — within limits.
“The most important point in the crown prince’s statement today was that we must have a balanced approach to our energy transition because the kingdom, while increasing its capacity to 13 million barrels, cannot go beyond that,” he said.
But critics say Biden’s visit has been overshadowed by continued concern over human rights problems in Saudi Arabia.
Concerns about the optics of the trip were highlighted on Saturday when it emerged that when Biden raised the issue of Khashoggi’s assassination, the crown prince responded by saying the US had “made its own mistakes”. In particular, the crown prince mentioned the mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and the May killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank as incidents that have badly affected the United States.
For its part, the White House defended Biden’s use of the punch as part of efforts to reduce physical contact amid the rapid spread of the new coronavirus, noting that Biden had also punched several Israeli leaders before his arrival in Jeddah .
Back at the White House on Saturday night, Biden appeared irritated when asked if he regretted the greeting. “Why don’t you talk about something that matters. I am happy to answer a question that matters,” he said.
The meeting between Biden and the crown prince was among the most closely watched moments of Biden’s landmark visit to the Middle East, with the controversy detracting from some of the other items on the president’s agenda — including discussions of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Prior to Biden’s arrival, Saudi Arabia had been pressuring the US to provide security guarantees if talks with Iran failed. The latest round of US-Iran talks has stalled.
In a statement after the meeting, the White House said Biden “reaffirmed the commitment of the United States to work with Saudi Arabia and other allies and partners in the Middle East to integrate and enhance security cooperation.”
While Saudi Arabia – one of Iran’s biggest regional rivals – supports a tough response to Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, other Gulf states are wary of being caught in the crossfire and favor talks as the way forward. The United Arab Emirates, in particular, has said it opposes a regional military alliance aimed specifically at Iran.
In his interview with CNN’s Nick Robertson, bin Farhan played down any differences, saying all six Gulf Cooperation Council countries — Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain — were united in their support for “negotiations.” with Iran.
He said Saudi Arabia wanted to resolve its differences with Iran through diplomacy – but was also working with the US to build capacity to “defend against potential Iranian aggression”.
“The crown prince’s discussion with President Biden focused on how to respond to the Iranian threat. And here we talked first of all about negotiations, but also about applying enough pressure to incentivize the Iranians to come to the negotiating table,” bin Farhan said in response to a question about Israel considering a final strike against Iran, for to stop it from producing nuclear weapons.
“We are having discussions with Iran, as you know, also the UAE, also our friends in Qatar, Kuwait, so all of us as a GCC collective are talking to the Iranians because we want to resolve our differences through dialogue, we hope the Iranians will respond with the same,” he added.
However, Bin Farhan told Robertson: “Obviously we have to defend ourselves.”
“We are working with the US to build our capacity and (that of) others in the region … to defend against potential Iranian aggression.”
He added: “We heard a commitment from President Biden to a robust defense of the kingdom.”
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