US to ‘Recalibrate’ Saudi Relationship; Biden to Speak with King, Not Crown Prince
US President Joe Biden will conduct his relationship with Saudi Arabia through King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and not through the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the king, the White House revealed on Tuesday. President Biden’s “counterpart is King Salman,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki explained, marking a stark change from his predecessor’s policy. The two will speak “at an appropriate time,” Psaki also said. The blatant snubbing of Riyadh’s strongest politician, and the fact that Biden has yet to formally call the Saudis at all, is no coincidence, according to Psaki. “We’ve made clear from the beginning that we are going to recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” she told reporters. Throughout his 2020 campaign, then-candidate Biden promised to hold Riyadh accountable for its various human rights violations, using harsh language to describe the crown prince, one of former President Trump’s closest friends, and vowing to treat the Saudis like “the pariah that they are.”