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Will Biden’s fist-bump with Saudi crown prince MBS dent US president’s image as human rights defender?

  • The president’s meeting with Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah came under sharp criticism, with many seeing it as undermining rights pledges he made in the past
  • ‘Biden’s support for human rights can be sold for a smidgen of oil,’ HRW executive director Kenneth Roth said on Twitter

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right) bumps fists with US President Joe Biden in Jeddah on July 15. Photo: Saudi Royal Palace/AFP
It took less than 24 hours in Saudi Arabia for US President Joe Biden to tarnish an image he has long cultivated: that of a fierce defender of human rights.
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The life of any politician is dotted with campaign pledges that ultimately backfire, and for Biden that list now includes his 2019 vow to make the desert kingdom a “pariah” over its human rights record.

Similarly his solemn description, delivered last year on US Independence Day, of Washington’s role on the global stage: “We stand as a beacon to the world.”

It was difficult for many to reconcile those words with the single-most searing image from Biden’s first visit to the Middle East as president: his fist-bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
US intelligence officials believe the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, “approved” the 2018 operation that led to the killing and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Taken outside a palace in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah, the fist-bump image was immediately distributed by official Saudi news outlets before doing the rounds on social media.

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