‘Frankly quite stupid’: rights groups condemn Biden’s Saudi Arabia visit

An image of Jamal Khashoggi is displayed after the street outside the Saudi embassy in Washington DC was renamed after the murdered journalist. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Getty Images

Rights advocates fear Joe Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia will endanger dissidents abroad and be seen by the authorities there as giving the green light to restrict civil liberties domestically.

Abdullah Alaoudh, of the thinktank Democracy for the Arab World Now and son of jailed cleric Salman al-Odah, said: “Right before inauguration, he [Biden] said he will be sure to protect Saudi dissidents – those were his words. We’re not protected by someone shaking hands with the same person who is threatening us every day and taking our families hostage due to our activism here in the US.”