Saudi Arabia: Biden set to meet Crown Prince amid criticism
Saudi Arabia: Biden meets crown prince amid criticism
(about 8 hours later)
President Biden is scheduled to meet the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman
President Biden fist bumped the Saudi crown prince after arriving from Israel on an historic direct flight
US President Joe Biden will meet Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank on Friday before he flies to a controversial summit in Saudi Arabia.
US President Joe Biden has been greeted by the Saudi crown prince on his arrival in the kingdom he said he would ostracise over its human rights record.
His meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is likely to be strained, analysts say, after ties hit a low under the Trump administration.
Mr Biden gave Mohammed bin Salman a fist bump. The White House has said the president is trying to avoid handshakes to protect him from Covid-19.
Later, Mr Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia to meet its de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He has faced criticism over the trip in the wake of the murder of dissident Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
Mr Biden will meet both the prince and his father, King Salman.
The president has defended his visit, saying he did not want to rupture ties.
Two years ago, Mr Biden had pledged to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over the 2018 murder in Turkey of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents.
He flew to the kingdom directly from Israel - something previously barred.
The prince denies involvement, but US intelligence concluded he approved it.
Saudi Arabia, which does not officially recognise Israel and for decades led a regional boycott of the Jewish state, earlier announced it would allow "all carriers" to use its airspace, seen as a conciliatory gesture to Mr Biden and Israel.
Topics of discussion for the leaders will include energy supply, human rights, and security cooperation.
The president is aiming to broaden Israel's integration in the region, especially in the field of security and defence, as part of efforts to counter the threat from Iran.
Mr Biden's meeting with President Abbas in Bethlehem earlier on Friday will be the highest-level meeting between the US and the Palestinians since the Palestinians froze ties in a dispute over the closure of the Washington office of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) - the main representative body of the Palestinians - by the Trump administration in 2018.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are regional rivals, while Israel considers Iran its most dangerous foe. Iran does not recognise Israel's right to exist and has repeatedly called for its elimination. Mutual concerns about Iran have led to unofficial security and intelligence ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The Palestinians want the US to do more to re-start peace talks with Israel, and to reopen the US consulate in Jerusalem, which served as a de facto embassy to the Palestinians before it was shut under President Trump in 2019.
Saudi Arabia has long been an important regional ally to the US, serving as a major oil supplier and buying billions of dollars of US weaponry. However, ties have been tested in recent years, with a US pivot towards Asia, withdrawal of forces and air defence capabilities from the Middle East and Mr Biden's declared prioritisation of human rights as a plank of his foreign policy.
Biden raises human rights in call with Saudi King Salman
Saudi human rights under new spotlight in Biden era
Saudi human rights under new spotlight in Biden era
What happened to Jamal Khashoggi?
What happened to Jamal Khashoggi?
Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil producer, and the attempted reset of relations follows a spike in oil prices driven by Russia's war in Ukraine.
The US-Saudi relationship faced its most serious challenge with the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based journalist who wrote for the Washington Post.
The US is expected to push Saudi officials to commit to increasing production.
Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents in 2018
Late on Thursday, Saudi Arabia announced it would open its airspace to commercial Israeli flights - a decision welcomed by the US.
Crown Prince Mohammed was accused by US intelligence agencies of approving the murder. The prince denied the allegations, and Saudi prosecutors blamed "rogue" Saudi agents.
The move will see the kingdom's airspace open to all carriers that meet its requirements for overflights, and paves the way for more flights to and from Israel.
When he was campaigning for the presidency in 2019, Mr Biden vowed to make Saudi Arabia "the pariah that they are" for killing Khashoggi.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said it "paves the way for a more integrated, stable, and secure Middle East region".
Mr Biden subsequently faced a storm of criticism over his decision to visit the kingdom. It comes at a time of near record oil prices in the US, with the president expected to push Saudi officials to commit to increasing production.
Mr Biden will become the first US president to fly directly to Saudi Arabia from Israel, which is seen as a small but significant sign of Riyadh's growing acceptance of Israel after decades of boycott in solidarity with the Palestinians.
The White House has downplayed Mr Biden's meeting with Prince Mohammed, saying he will also be meeting other Arab leaders when he attends a conference in Jeddah on Saturday.
Mr Biden will fly from Israel, where he has been meeting with Prime Minister Yair Lapid
Meanwhile, it has been revealed to the BBC that a Saudi American businessman in his 70s - whose case has not been disclosed before - has been detained without charge by the Saudi authorities since November.
On Friday evening, Mr Biden will arrive in the Saudi city of Jeddah, where he will meet Prince Mohammed for the first time since taking office.
The information came from a member of his family, who requested anonymity. Relatives of those held there often do not make the cases public as they fear the consequences of doing so.
Up to now, the president has insisted on speaking with King Salman, who US officials say is Mr Biden's direct counterpart.
The man went missing on his arrival in Saudi Arabia last November. The member of his family believes his detention may be due to social media posts critical of the Saudi authorities.
White House officials have refused to say whether Mr Biden will raise the murder of Mr Khashoggi, who was a Washington Post columnist and lived in the US.
A source at the US State Department told the BBC that the department had no higher priority than protecting US citizens abroad, but that for privacy reasons it would make no further comment.
They also declined to say if the pair would shake hands.
Additional reporting by the BBC's Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher.
A lot still has to be done to mend this relationship
President Biden is in East Jerusalem, also part of the occupied Palestinian territories. It's the first time a sitting US president has gone to that part of the city outside of the old city.
What we're going to see from the US on this part of the trip, as President Biden spends a few hours meeting Palestinians, is going to be a big aid package - also $200m for the UN agency that looks after Palestinian refugees and some other good will gestures.
When he comes to Bethlehem to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his headquarters, it's going to be a lot more about the politics.
President Biden's administration has tried to mend ties that were broken under President Trump with the Palestinians. He's spoken of his own personal commitment to the idea of the two state solution - that's creating an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel - as a way to end the long standing conflict here.
He says that can't be seen in the near future as the conditions are not right on either side.
There's a lot of frustration from Palestinian perspective when you talk to people here about that. The idea of a viable state is something that is diminishing all the time in their view.
Things are going to be different with President Biden but a lot still has to be done to mend this relationship.
The meeting with Prince Mohammed has infuriated some of the US president's own Democratic Party, who want him to use the summit to challenge Saudi Arabia on its human rights record.
Last week, Adam Schiff, a senior House Democrat, said he wouldn't have visited the country or met Prince Mohammed if he were in Mr Biden's position.
"This is someone who butchered an American resident, cut him up into pieces and in the most terrible and premeditated way," Mr Schiff said. "Until Saudi Arabia makes a radical change in terms of (its) human rights, I wouldn't want anything to do with him."
Mr Biden has defended his decision, telling reporters earlier this week in Jerusalem that his "position on Khashoggi has been so clear, if anyone doesn't understand it in Saudi Arabia or otherwise, they haven't been around me for a while".
The US president said his Middle East tour - where he will also meet Egyptian, Iraqi and Jordanian leaders - offers an opportunity to fix the "mistake" of "walking away from our influence in the Middle East", an apparent attack on the policies of former President Donald Trump.
Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman met former President Donald Trump at the White House in 2018
