JEDDAH: US President Joe Biden said at a briefing Friday afternoon in Saudi Arabia that he and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had agreed to significant new security measures during their highly anticipated meeting.
Biden said keeping Saudi Arabia safe from "very real threats from Iran and Iran's proxies" was a major point of dialogue, along with the extension of a ceasefire in the conflict in neighboring Yemen.
"The bottom line is this trip is about once again positioning America in this region for the future,” Biden said. "We are not going to leave a vacuum in the Middle East for Russia or China to fill.”
The US and Saudi Arabia on Friday made a package of announcements ranging from removing peacekeepers from a strategic island off the Saudi and Egyptian coasts to cooperation in mobile technology.
In the statement released after Biden held talks with senior Saudi officials, the United States also welcomed previously announced accelerated oil production increases by OPEC+, a group that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The statement said US and other peacekeepers would leave Tiran island where they have been stationed as part of accords reached in 1978 and which led to a peace deal between Israel and Egypt. Tiran lies between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, in a strategic area that leads to the Israeli port of Eilat.
Washington also welcomed a Saudi move to open its air space to civilian aircraft flying to and from Israel, which had previously been barred with rare exceptions, the statement said. Other announcements also covered an agreement on cooperation on 5G and 6G mobile technology and on cybersecurity.
Biden also said he brought up the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the top of the meeting. "I made clear that the topic [of human rights] is vitally important to me and to the United States,” Biden said. "With respect to the murder of Khashoggi, I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time, and when I think of it now.”