President Joe Biden’s fist bump with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) sparked mockery among critics.
Video shows Biden arriving at the royal palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, greeting Salman with a fist bump.
Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) shredded the move as she tweeted, “The bloody fist bump seen around the world. this is worst than Trump’s orb touching.”
“, you have humiliated our entire country,” she added.
The move garnered several reactions on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/jljacobson/status/1547981887892639748
NBC News reported that pulling off Biden’s visit was a “herculean effort,” citing an official.
Especially “after the Saudis demanded nothing short of personal presidential attention to make amends for Biden having maligned the deeply conservative kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, over the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi,” as NBC News noted.
“It took several months before the president was totally on board,” a senior administration official told the outlet.
The official added, “Even once the president realized the strategic importance of going to meet with the Saudis, he was still hesitant.”
According to the official, Biden realized “it was unavoidable.”
Additionally, the outlet noted there were discussions about whether the president would smile in photos or shake Salman’s hand.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by reporters about minimizing physical contact during his trips to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
“We are saying that we’re going to try to minimize contact as much as possible. But also, there are precautions that we are taking because this is up to his doctor. BA.4, BA.5 is indeed, as we’re seeing, increasing. And we want to make sure that we’re taking those precautions to keep him safe and to keep all of us safe,” Jean-Pierre said, referring to different variants of COVID-19.