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Biden's dilemma: What about a photo with Saudi Crown Prince MbS?
US presidential visits, even with the closest of allies, are often highly choreographed affairs involving weeks of planning around seating arrangements, camera positions and how officials plan to walk into rooms to set up or avoid a handshake.
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US President Joe Biden gestures as he departs for Japan from Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek on May 22, 2022. (AFP/Kim Hong-Ji)
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oe Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia this week is a diplomatic challenge that comes with a thorny logistics question: Should the US president be photographed meeting, or even shaking hands with, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman?
US presidential visits, even with the closest of allies, are often highly choreographed affairs involving weeks of planning around seating arrangements, camera positions and how officials plan to walk into rooms to set up or avoid a handshake.
Biden, who called the Saudi government a "pariah" for its role in the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist and political opponent Jamal Khashoggi, is reluctantly meeting the crown prince, who US intelligence believe was behind the killing.
But political experts say the White House understands that a photo, and perhaps one of the two men shaking hands, may be both inevitable and necessary, as Washington seeks to reset its relationship with the oil-rich nation and with a young crown prince destined to rule the kingdom for many years to come.
“I think the White House's expectation is they're going to be in the same room. They're not going to be far apart. At some point, the crown prince is likely to come over and extend his hand and some sort of image will emerge," said Jon B. Alterman, a former State Department official and senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
When it does, Biden is sure to face criticism from Republican opposition who argue the president is courting a questionable ally to boost oil production over domestic producers and from his own Democrats, who have urged Biden to delay any meeting due to human rights concerns.
Saudi officials have not disclosed whether MbS, as he is also known, or the ailing King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will greet Biden when he arrives in Jeddah. Other details, such as whether there will be a formal dinner, have not been released.
