Page 91 - Mbs News Today

Human rights? this man was murdered, dismembered. the united states believes that mbs was behind it. how do we lead on human rights when were still beholden to this country for oil? how can you do both at the same time? >> well, in my time there we had identified nine different national interests at play. and the same i think is true today. so human rights is one of the key national interests, but then you have to deal with the rest of them as well. and that includes the free throw of energy fro...

We were both in a meeting at "the washington post" editorial board with mohammed bin salman in 2018. it was off the record, so we wont talk about the content of that meeting, but i remember walking out of that meeting and ch chatting with josh and him asking me as someone who spent a lot of time in the middle east, my perceptions of the crown prince and saudi arabia, and you know, i will refer back to what i told him then. were going to be stuck with this person as the leader of the main supply ...

Mbs perceives it. for him it is a big win, biden is coming to saudi arabia and he says that he will mention human rights, but what does that mean? we need to have concessions after biden leaves, we have to see release of political prisoners, we have to see the travel bans lifted. and another thing is to see that president biden is meeting with mbs, but is he meeting with the oppressor. >> she is asking why isnt he meeting with saudi dissidents. should biden be doing some of those things if not a...

If any, back at home? >> i think -- i mean, the white house dont perceive there to be much political fallout domestically. people arent paying attention as close to this stuff as you and i are. they arent going to ding him for taking a visit with mbs after calling saudi arabia a pariah state. far more interesting for them is whether they can get oil prices down and simultaneously whether they can build on the abraham accord and build this joint venture between saudi arabia and israel. the presid...

They are going to be part of it, just like there are people part of the discussion today. >> jesse: but the white house had a plan. they didnt want pictures of biden shaking the crown prince is buddy hand so the plan was to fist bump everybody and blame covid. but of course biden forgot and shook hands with pretty much everybody. and once he met mbs, he remembered the plan and gave prince pariah a little fist bump. democratic presidents have shaken hands with russian, asian, and african leaders ...

Corporation council here in jeddah, and meeting with the leaders of the other countries that have gathered as well, many of them major oil producing countries. so this is an important opportunity for the president to see if he can get the opec nations for example to increase the supply of oil and hopefully bring the price per gallon down in the united states. which is the subject obviously very close to his heart right now in this political season. there you see some of the welcoming saudi leade...

On what substantive level the president will be raising this issue in these meetings? >> they have said that he will bring it up, but of course the big question is when the cameras arent there, when reporters arent there, how much of a discussion is it. because they have a lot of other things that the white house wants to discuss and things that they are hoping to make progress on. oil production being number one, extending the ceasefire in yemen being number one. and also normalizing relations ...

States and of course saudi arabia. it is certainly no secret that the relations, the ties, that extend back to 1945 which had been very, very close had been strained over the years and there is no exception in the case of the administration of mr. biden. so i think that what mr. biden wants to see is a return asto a better relationship. this is a relationship based on shared interests, not shared values, that evident to folks on both sides. but he will want to come back being able to demonstrate...

Ways the importance of saudi arabia. i mean, look, the president of the united states who said he wouldnt do it, he wouldnt meet with a pariah state, he wouldnt do this, he wouldnt do that is in jedda right now. the importance of saudi arabia for the middle east and indeed because of their extraordinary amount of oil for the world. >> yes. you campaign in poetry and govern in prose and the president is governing in prose. saudi arabia is an absolutely critical nation in the middle east. it is th...

That was a campaign promise and today hes fist bumping mbs. what changed? >> president biden has been completely honest unlike his press enter, about saudi arabias responsibility and the responsibility of mbs for the murder of jamal khashoggi. president biden cut off the sale of offensive weapons to saudi arabia, got a cease-fire in yemen, hopefully the beginning of an end to the blood he wore. but im still not entirely comfortable with the image of this meeting . i think the most important issu...