Photo showing the late US Journalist, Jamal Khashoggi
US President, Joe Biden plans to call Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Wednesday ahead of the public release of an intelligence report about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Axios has reported.
The call, if it happens as scheduled, will be Mr. Biden’s first conversation as president with the Saudi king, according to Axios.
Since assuming office last month, Mr. Biden has not particularly cosied up to the Saudi regime in the same manner the Trump White House did.
Sources close to the new US president have pointed to Mr. Biden’s “unhappiness” over Mr. Trump’s readiness to sweep Mr. Khashoggi’s killing under the carpet.
Sixty-year-old Mr. Khashoggi, a columnist with the Washington Post, was brutally murdered at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, where he had gone to secure papers for his wedding nearly two years ago.
No sooner had Mr. Biden assumed office than he withdrew US support for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iranian-backed Huthis in Yemen