US President Joe Biden spoke Thursday with Saudi King Salman ahead of thepublic release of a long-anticipated report expected to implicate themonarch’s son in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
The readout of the call did not explicitly list the report’s forthcomingrelease as one of the issues the leaders discussed but referred broadly to”the importance the United States places on universal human rights and therule of law.”
The White House said Biden and Salman discussed “regional security,including the renewed diplomatic efforts led by the United Nations and theUnited States to end the war in Yemen, and the U.S. commitment to helpSaudi Arabia defend its territory as it faces attacks from Iranian-alignedgroups.”
“The President told King Salman he would work to make the bilateralrelationship as strong and transparent as possible. The two leadersaffirmed the historic nature of the relationship and agreed to worktogether on mutual issues of concern and interest,” the White House added.
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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s long-soughtunclassified report will reportedly conclude that Salman’s son, Mohammedbin Salman, approved and almost certainly ordered Khashoggi’s murder.
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The dual US-Saudi national was brutally killed and likely dismembered afterbeing lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018, andwhile Saudi officials initially denied any role in his death, they latersought to pin blame on what they said was a botched rendition operation.
That explanation has been widely rejected by both the UN and a wide groupof US lawmakers who have maintained bin Salman’s culpability.
Khashoggi’s remains have never been found amid speculation that they weredissolved in a vat of acid in the diplomatic building.
