Lindsey Graham has ‘very productive’ meeting with Saudi crown prince he previously criticized

By Mary Kay Mallonee, CNN

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday he had a “very productive” meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he previously criticized following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“I just had a very productive, candid meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince and his senior leadership team. The opportunity to enhance the U.S.-Saudi relationship is real and the reforms going on in Saudi Arabia are equally real,” Graham tweeted.

Graham, in a three-part tweet, said he looked forward to working with the Biden administration and Congress to “see if we can take the U.S.-Saudi relationship to the next level, which would be a tremendous economic benefit to both countries and bring much-needed stability to a troubled region.”

“I also expressed deep appreciation to the Kingdom for purchasing $37 billion worth of Boeing 787s — which are made in South Carolina — for the new Saudi airline. Investments like this are game changers,” Graham said in a tweet.

Soon after Khashoggi was murdered, Graham delivered a strong message to reporters in October 2018 as speculation ramped up that the journalist’s death was ordered by the highest levels of the royal court in Saudi Arabia. “There’ll be a bipartisan tsunami against Saudi Arabia here if they did, in fact, do this,” Graham told reporters at the time.

In November 2018, Graham said, “Don’t think Congress is going to look away if he’s (bin Salman) making the world a more dangerous place. We are not going to give an autocratic leader a pass.”

A declassified US intelligence report that was released in February 2021 said the crown prince approved the operation to capture or kill the Saudi journalist.

Graham did not reference Khashoggi’s death in his tweets Tuesday about his meeting with the crown prince.

The country’s state-run Saudi Press Agency also tweeted about the meeting between Graham and Prince bin Salman, including pictures, and said the two reviewed “the friendly relations between the two countries.”

Graham’s meeting with the crown prince is reflective of the uneasy accommodation the US government has made with the de facto Saudi leader following Khashoggi’s murder. President Joe Biden has expressed outrage over the incident and blamed bin Salman, but last summer, amid soaring oil prices, he traveled to Saudi Arabia and gave the crown prince a fist bump, providing a photo opportunity for the Saudi government and outraging human rights groups.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan and bin Salman also spoke on Tuesday amid recent tension between the two countries following the news that OPEC+ will cut oil production starting in May.

“They discussed a number of global and regional matters to include ongoing diplomacy related to ending the war in Yemen,” according to a White House readout of the call.

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