Joe Biden is slated to visit Saudi Arabia next month, a significant restoration of relations with the kingdom, which soured following the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden’s tour in mid-July will start in Israel and the occupied West Bank, where the president aims to reinforce “the United States’ iron-clad commitment to Israel’s security and prosperity,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.
“As the president often says about Israel, he learned as a young boy from his father that if Israel did not exist, then we would need to invent it,” an unnamed senior White House official claimed in a briefing to reporters following confirmation of Biden’s travel plans.