The fiancee of the murdered US journalist Jamal Khashoggi told President Biden that “you are defaming yourself” and “oiling on principles” to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a trip to the Middle East next month. By agreeing to
“Mr. Speaker, I beg you not to lose your moral right or ignore this heinous crime,” Hatice Cengiz said in a videotaped message on Wednesday. should play its part.”
Cengiz also referred to the 1972 car accident that killed Biden’s first wife and newborn daughter.
“Like me, you know grief, pain and sorrow very well,” she said. “You understand how it’s so hard to recover… but unlike your loss, the person I loved was brutally murdered, and I’m being forced to live in such a world Where his killers have not only been punished but also rewarded.
“As depressing as it is,” Cengiz continued, “if you have to pour oil on principles, and expediency on values, can you at least ask, ‘Where is Jamal’s body? Does he deserve a proper funeral? Isn’t it? And what happened to his killers?'”
Khashoggi, a Virginia resident who contributed to the opinion column in the Washington Post, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul amid a 2018 political crackdown by the crown prince.
After Khashoggi reaches the diplomatic post, apparently to retrieve the documents needed to marry Cengiz, a Saudi hit squad kills him and kills him using a bone saw, according to Turkish officials. body separated.
The Saudi government initially denied any wrongdoing. But under mounting international pressure, Riyadh eventually admitted that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, in what the Saudis described as a repatriation effort turned out to be wrong.
The US intelligence community has said that Mohammed bin Salman, commonly known as MBS, ordered and signed the operation that killed Khashoggi. The Saudi regime has consistently denied that connection. Several low-level Saudi officials and agents received prison sentences for murder.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Cengiz’s words were “devastating,” but declined to say whether Biden would take up Khashoggi’s killing with MBS when he tours the state.
“First, I want to say you know, just hearing that it’s devastating, isn’t it?” said Jean-Pierre. “This is Jamal Khashoggi’s widow, and so clearly our hearts go out to her and the pain she is currently going through.”
“You know, when it comes to human rights, it’s nothing – the president is a straight shooter,” she continued. “It’s not something he’s afraid to talk about. He has even talks with the leader on a regular basis. I just can’t read or tell what the agenda will be or what the talks are going to be like But I can assure you, I can assure you that when it comes to human rights, it is something that is a priority for this President.
The White House confirmed on Tuesday that Biden will visit Saudi Arabia on his upcoming visit, despite he vowed during his presidential campaign to regard Riyadh as a “pariah”.
On Wednesday, Washington DC officials held a formal ceremony to rename the street in front of the Saudi Embassy Jamal Khashoggi Way, unveiling a sign directly in front of the building’s main entrance.
post with wires
