US President Joe Biden, will travel to Saudi Arabia and Israel next month and the White House plans to formally announce those visits later this week, a source briefed on the plans in Washington told Reuters news agency yesterday, Sunday.
Mr Biden's trip to Riyadh may include a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to the same source.
The Democratic president had pledged to treat the crown prince as a "pariah" because of his role in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, at the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
A report by US intelligence agencies, released by Joe Biden, asserted that the prince "approved" the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by a group of hitmen at the consulate in Istanbul. The Wahhabi kingdom has denied that Mohammed bin Salman was involved in the case.
The US president, who boasts of leading the fight of democracies against authoritarian regimes, had said he would "readjust" relations with the Sunni kingdom, with an emphasis on human rights.
But a new variable has been added to the diplomatic equation, soaring fuel prices, in part because of Russia's war against Ukraine, causing despair in the American public in an election year.
Mr. Biden's government wants Riyadh to increase oil production, hoping that this will lower prices at gas stations.
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