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US President Biden in Jeddah: "How can I be sure?"
Photo: EVELYN HOCKSTEIN / REUTERS
US President Joe Biden responded harshly to a journalist's question during his visit to Saudi Arabia.
"What a stupid question," Biden told a reporter Friday.
The woman had asked the US President how he could be sure that there would not be another murder like that of Saudi government critic Jamal Khashoggi.
"How can I be sure?" Biden continued.
He couldn't predict anything at all - certainly not for Saudi Arabia or any other part of the world.
According to his own words, however, he warned Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at their meeting in Jeddah of future acts of violence against government critics.
Biden made it clear to the heir to the throne that another act like the murder of Khashoggi in October 2018 would result in a “response” from the United States, he said on Friday evening after his consultations with bin Salman in the Saudi Arabian port city.
Overall, Biden drew a positive balance of his first talks in Saudi Arabia.
Significant progress has been made on security and economic issues, he said.
According to US government officials, Biden wants to restart the relationship with the traditional ally.
The visit is considered sensitive, as US intelligence services say the crown prince was involved in the assassination of Washington Post journalist Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia denies this.
Khashoggi, who lives in the United States, was brutally killed by a hit squad at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Biden has therefore had to defend his trip and meeting with the crown prince against criticism for weeks.
The US President arrived in Saudi Arabia from Israel on Friday.
And while Biden's reception was cool compared to that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, a snap of the clash caused some excitement.
Upon his arrival at the royal palace in the coastal city of Jeddah, he and the Crown Prince greeted each other with a fist bump.
The trip – and the fist salute – is a big topic in the US media.
The visit to Saudi Arabia is partly interpreted as Biden's broken promise from the election campaign to make the Saudi leadership an "outsider", the fist salute as a forgiving gesture.
Biden had already reacted in a less friendly way to a journalist's question in January - although his words were much sharper at the time.
When the reporter threw a question at the President on the sidelines of a public appearance in Washington, Biden murmured—audible to everyone since his microphone was still on: “What a stupid son of a bitch.” In English, “son of a bitch” is on Swear word whose unflattering range of meanings ranges from "bastard" or "bastard" to the very literal and rather uncommon translation "son of a bitch."
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