Jeddah, July 16: US President Joe Biden who is in Saudi Arabia, raised the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi during his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday and said that he believed the Saudi leader was responsible for the US-based journalist's death.
"I said, very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am," Biden said. "I'll always stand up for our values."
However, responding to the questions raised by the media, Biden later said that the Saudi Crown Prince told him he was not "personally responsible" for Khashoggi's murder.
"I indicated I thought he was," Biden said. "He said he was not personally responsible for it, and he took action against those who were responsible."
Biden received criticism earlier on Friday when he was photographed fist bumping the Saudi Crown Prince, who the US intelligence community concluded approved Khashoggi's 2018 murder, reported The Hill citing sources.
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US intelligence believes that the crown prince likely approved the killing of Khashoggi, a US-based writer, four years ago. His murder has loomed over Biden's efforts to reset relations with Saudi Arabia.
Biden also announced that US peacekeepers would leave the Red Sea island of Tiran by the end of the year, part of an agreement reached during what he called "a good series of meetings" in Jeddah.