WASHINGTON • United States President Joe Biden and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz held a long-awaited first phone call on Thursday, stressing the enduring strength of ties ahead of a potentially explosive US intelligence report on the murder of a Washington Post journalist.
The phone call was seen as the final precursor to the release of the report on the grisly killing in 2018 of Mr Jamal Khashoggi, a US-based Saudi national who had been an outspoken critic of King Salman's expected successor Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
If, as expected, the report directly implicates Prince Mohammed in Mr Khashoggi's murder, it will cast a huge shadow over relations between the US and its most significant ally in the Arab world, which had flourished under Mr Biden's predecessor Donald Trump.
In their phone call, Mr Biden and the 85-year-old King discussed "the US commitment to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory as it faces attacks from Iranian-aligned groups", according to a statement from the White House.
However, the US President also "affirmed the importance the United States places on universal human rights and the rule of law" in the call, which came more than five weeks after Mr Biden was sworn in and long after he had spoken with a host of other world leaders.
The official Saudi news agency SPA said that the King and Mr Biden had both stressed "the depth of the relationship between the two countries" and discussed Iran's "destabilising activities and its support for terrorist groups" in the region.
The report's release, which was expected to come as early as yesterday, is a sharp departure from the policies of Mr Trump, who hailed his close friendship with Saudi Arabia and whose son-in-law and adviser, Mr Jared Kushner, became texting friends with the 35-year-old Prince Mohammed.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday had his own phone call with the kingdom's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, where they "discussed the importance of Saudi progress on human rights, including through legal and judicial reforms", US State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
Prince Mohammed, who is considered the de facto leader of the kingdom due to the King's fragile health, has said he accepts Saudi Arabia's overall responsibility in Mr Khashoggi's killing but denies a personal link.
Five people were handed death sentences over the murder of Mr Khashoggi, who was killed and dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
But a Saudi court in September last year overturned the sentences while giving jail terms of up to 20 years to eight unnamed defendants following secretive legal proceedings.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
