Pak Sahafat- The heinous murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which caused the relations between Riyadh and Washington in the democratic administration of Joe Biden to turn dark and cold, despite Biden’s struggle to re-establish relations, cast a shadow over his visit to this country.
US President Joe Biden refused to directly announce on Thursday that he will raise the issue of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder during his visit to Saudi Arabia.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, the President of the United States, who is in the occupied territories and is going to visit Saudi Arabia, said that he has always raised the issue of human rights and his opinion on the murder of Khashoggi has been clearly stated.
On Thursday, when reporters asked him whether he would raise the Khashoggi issue during his meeting with Saudi leaders, he said: My opinion about Khashoggi is clearly stated and I have never been silent about raising the issue of human rights.
The Fox News channel affiliated with the American Republicans also announced in a report on Thursday local time: Despite the fact that the wife of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi has announced that the American government promised her to raise the issue of the journalist’s murder during her trip to Saudi Arabia, the White House avoids answering questions in this regard.
Biden will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman later this week after his trip to Israel.
Hanan al-Attar, the wife of Jamal Khashoggi, met with the White House officials last week and has now announced that the American government has assured her that the Khashoggi issue will be raised.
The White House told Fox News on Thursday: We do not disclose the details of private conversations with other leaders before they happened, but US President Joe Biden has taken actions related to Khashoggi’s murder after his election.
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The American official went to Arabia to coordinate Biden’s trip.
The White House claimed: The American president’s views on human rights are clear and long-standing, and basic freedoms are always on the agenda during foreign trips, as this issue will be on the agenda during this trip as well.
Breitbart news site wrote on Tuesday local time: Hanan al-Attar, Khashoggi’s widow, sent a letter to the US president in June and requested a meeting with him, but the White House refused this request.
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, told reporters that although the White House has been in contact with members of the Khashoggi family, the president has not.
Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, have attracted all the attention. This is while Biden promised during his election campaign to reject Saudi Arabia.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Biden acknowledged that many people disagreed with his decision to travel to Saudi Arabia and promised to make his position on human rights “clear” during the trip.
Biden wrote that he considers the relationship with Saudi Arabia important for the future of the region and the interests of the United States.
Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist against Bin Salman, who wrote for the Washington Post, was kidnapped and brutally murdered after visiting the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.
This 59-year-old journalist, as a critic of the Saudi ruling body, was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, a week after he criticized the Saudi authorities for their silence against the insults of the American president.
Earlier, in a series of articles in the Washington Post newspaper, Khashoggi criticized Saudi Arabia’s policies regarding the Qatar crisis, the severing of relations with Canada, the war against Yemen, and the Saudi authorities’ treatment of the media and civil activists, especially human rights defenders.