Biden affirms that he will not ask Saudi Arabia about an increase in oil production in his next visit

June 30. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, has indicated this Thursday that he will not ask the Saudi authorities, within the framework of his next visit to attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, about a possible increase in oil production.

“That is not the purpose of the trip,” he said at a press conference in Madrid, where the Atlantic Alliance summit is being held, alluding, again, to the fact that he is not traveling for the sole purpose of meeting with the Saudi crown prince , and that these are not bilateral issues either, but rather a regional approach.

Thus, Biden has stressed that “he is not going to ask them”, since “all the Gulf states are meeting”. “I have indicated to them that I thought they should increase oil production in general, not to Saudi Arabia in particular. I hope we see them in their own interests concluding that it makes sense to do so,” she said.

“I guess I’ll see the king and the crown prince, but that’s not the meeting I’m going to. They will be part of a much larger meeting,” he said, adding that they will raise “a whole range of things,” such as ” reduce war deaths” in Yemen.

The president of the United States will travel to Saudi Arabia after visiting Israel and the West Bank on an extensive tour that he himself had been anticipating and that comes in the midst of a debate on the search for new global energy agreements to alleviate dependence on fossil fuels from Russia. .

The US press has asked Biden in recent months about a possible meeting with Bin Salman in the face of criticism for having turned the page after the murder of journalist Jamal Jashoghi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, as he promised to treat the Arab kingdom as a “pariah”. “.

These same tensions were harvested by the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, just a week ago for receiving the crown prince in the country’s capital, Ankara, where both discussed economic and political issues.

The US president responded a few days ago to questions from journalists, in the midst of criticism, regarding the Khashogi case, and indicated that he will continue to deal with it “in the same way he was doing.”

Jashogi, a columnist for the newspaper ‘The Washington Post’, went to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 to collect some papers to be able to marry his fiancée, Hatice Cengiz. However, he was never heard from again, his remains have not been found and the Turkish and Western intelligence services suggest that the order to kill him could only come from the highest echelons of the Saudi kingdom.

Although at first Riyadh denied knowing Khashogi’s whereabouts, it finally admitted that he was murdered and dismembered inside the consulate, a crime for which eight people were convicted, but always denying an alleged involvement of the royal family.

Apart from the controversy, on his official tour of the Middle East, Biden plans to meet with the main Israeli officials in a meeting in which he will convey the “unwavering” US support for the defense of the “security” and “prosperity” of the country , especially after the signing of the Abraham Accords with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Likewise, he will also visit the West Bank, where he will speak with representatives of the Palestinian Authority, according to a White House statement. The US president, in favor of the creation of a Palestinian State, also wants to work for the sake of “security, peace and opportunities” for the Palestinian population, according to the White House at the time.