Media leaks about the attitude of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman toward US President Joe Biden are not an accident, but authorized by the Saudi leadership the US-Saudi relations are in crisis, an expert in oriental studies at the Russian Council on International Affairs, Elena Suponina, told Sputnik on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th October, 2022) Media leaks about the attitude of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman toward US President Joe Biden are not an accident, but authorized by the Saudi leadership the US-Saudi relations are in crisis, an expert in oriental studies at the Russian Council on International Affairs, Elena Suponina, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported on Monday, citing sources in the Saudi government, that bin Salman mocks 79-year-old Biden in private because of mistakes he makes, and also questions the mental abilities of the US president.
"In this situation it does not matter whether it is actually the prince or his entourage, who is making fun of Biden, but that relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States are currently experiencing the worst period in almost half a century," Suponina said.
Saudi broadcasters, which are usually very restrained and clearly follow the instructions of the Saudi leadership, come up with funny stories about the US president, where, for example, he forgets or confuses the Names of countries. According to the expert this is unprecedented, because "it is clear to everyone that such stories cannot be broadcast without the consent of the crown prince."
In July, Biden said that he told bin Salman that he believed the crown prince was responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey, which Saudi Arabia has not forgotten and has not forgiven, according to Suponina. The expert recalled that in 2018, at the G20 summit in Argentina, the crown prince was alienated because of the United States, which was also extremely insulting to him.
"In the Persian Gulf, rich Arabs badly react to this kind of slap in the face. And that's exactly how it was perceived," Suponina underscored.
All the following US actions were perceived through the prism of such a beginning of the split in relations between the leadership of the US and Saudi Arabia.
Western countries and Saudi human rights activists have repeatedly accused the country's leadership of political repression and reprisals against dissidents after bin Salman came to power. Rights activists, in particular, accuse Saudi Crown Prince of ordering the assassination of Saudi journalist Khashoggi in 2018.
