Biden Says Will Only Meet ‘Pariah’ MBS as Part of International Gathering in Riyadh

President Joe Biden has defended an upcoming meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) after coming under attack by the left for not sticking to his campaign promise to turn Riyadh into a “pariah” state, saying he would only be seeing MBS during a broader “international meeting.”

As part of his campaign, Biden promised to make “human rights the center of U.S. foreign policy” and as part of that, Saudi Arabia was condemned as a “pariah” for its role in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

But soaring gas prices, reaching $5 per gallon, have made Biden have a change of heart. According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), Americans will pay $450 more for gas in 2022 than they did last year on an inflation-adjusted basis.

As a result, Biden is now attempting to thaw frosty relations with the Gulf nation.

Leaders from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reportedly refused to take phone calls from President Joe Biden during the Ukraine crisis, after he snubbed them repeatedly during the first year of his administration. https://t.co/rWIOz8qySr

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 9, 2022

But liberal lawmakers and rights groups have denounced Biden for even visiting Saudi Arabia as part of his trip to the Middle East next month.

Asked by a reporter how he will handle the topic of Khashoggi’s death, Biden insisted he was not going specifically to meet with MBS.

“I’m not going to meet with MBS. I’m going to an international meeting, and he’s going to be part of it,” Biden said according to remarks carried by the Reuters news agency.

In an interview with Breitbart, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said deeming MBS a pariah “was a mistake by Biden.”

Biden plans to visit Saudi Arabia, according to reports, despite vowing to treat them as a "pariah." https://t.co/BjtMTdLVnt

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 2, 2022

“The opportunity that Saudi Arabia presents for a safer and more prosperous Middle East is tremendous and Biden should have jumped on the progress that we made and taken further steps,” the former ambassador said, referencing measures taken by the Trump administration.

When Biden came into office, he “took steps backwards.” Friedman said, and was not as “robustly supportive of a new Middle East as we were.”

Biden is “trying to recapture some of that ground, but not for the right reasons.”

“He’s desperate to reduce the price of oil and he’s trying to get gas down to under $4 a gallon before the elections,” Friedman added. “That’s the real pressure on Democrats for the midterms, but it’s the wrong thing to focus on.”

“Had we remained energy independent that wouldn’t even be necessary,” Friedman asserted.

Polling shows that 74 percent of Americans believe Biden’s soaring gas prices are an “extremely/very important” factor in how they will vote in the midterm elections.