Joe Biden seemed to want to play down the scope of his controversial upcoming meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman in Saudi Arabia on Friday June 17, insisting that it would take place in an international context.
"
I'm not going to meet MBS.
I am going to an international meeting, in which he will participate
, ”said the American president, before boarding the helicopter taking him for the weekend to his villa on the ocean.
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Its convoluted formula betrays the embarrassment of Joe Biden, aware that his planned visit to the oil kingdom in mid-July will devote the international rehabilitation of the prince, who had been largely isolated after the assassination of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
US intelligence accuses MBS of having "
validated
" the assassination of the
Washington Post
columnist and Joe Biden had estimated, before his election to the White House, that Saudi Arabia should be treated as a "
pariah
" state.
Joe Biden then also made it known that he refused to exchange directly with "
MBS
".
