The much-anticipated meeting between Joe Biden and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began shortly after the US president touched down in Jeddah on the next leg of his Middle East tour.
On arrival at the Al Salam Royal Palace on Friday, Mr Biden emerged from the “the Beast” and fist-bumped the crown prince who stood ready to greet him.
The pair then entered the palace to begin their closed-door bilateral meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud.
At the beginning of the president’s visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia, the White House made a point of saying that Mr Biden would be minimising contact with other leaders and officials as a precaution against Covid-19.
However, on arrival in Israel, the president accepted a number of handshakes from the delegation that greeted him. He later hugged and kissed two American Holocaust survivors.
Prior to the trip, the insistence on fist-bumping by the White House was interpreted by some observers as a way of avoiding having to shake the hand of such a controversial figure as the Saudi crown prince, who – according to a scathing intelligence report – is believed to have had a direct hand in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post journalist.
Having shaken hands with so many officials in Israel, it was thought that Mr Biden may have backed himself into an awkward situation when meeting the crown prince and have been forced to offer the more traditional greeting.
White House reporter for The Washington Post Cleve R Wootson observed on Twitter that it’s “important to note that whether it’s a fist bump or a handshake, MBS still gets what he’s longed for: a very public display of validation by the leader of the free world”.
Ashley Parker, the paper’s White House bureau chief, went further adding: “Yes, it’s a fist bump rather than a handshake. BUT Biden still fist-bumped the man who ordered the murder — and bone-saw dismemberment — of a US journalist, after refusing to say if he would directly confront MBS on Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.”
An official Saudi Twitter account was quick to post an image of the greeting following its broadcast by local and international networks.
The visit to the kingdom has been controversial for Mr Biden from the moment it was announced. During his 2020 election campaign, the president said his administration would turn this repressive kingdom – a longtime US partner of convenience – into a global “pariah”.
Such an apparent policy about-face has not gone unnoticed in the US and is likely to appear in forthcoming electoral cycles.
