US President Biden has accused the Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel al-Jubeir, of lying after the Saudi official said he “did not hear” Biden bring up the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS).

According to prior statements from the president during a late Friday night press briefing coming just off his meeting with crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, Biden told the press he had raised the issue of Jamal Khashoggi's murder, even accusing him directly. He charged that he believes MbS responsible for the 2018 murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul: 

"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 what I think of it now,” Biden told reporters. “I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my view crystal clear."

"I indicated I thought he was," Biden said. "He said he was not personally responsible for it, and he took action against those who were responsible."

After the US president returned to Washington, he was asked by reporters if Al-Jubeir was telling the truth, to which he simply replied: “No.”

In Biden's account, MbS flatly denied responsibility for Khashoggi's death and even went so far as to call out Washington on its moral hypocrisy in human rights matters, specifically the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq and the more recent killing of Al Jazeera journalist Abu Akleh during an Israeli military raid (MbS reportedly said the US failed to act or appropriately condemn her death). Also given the conversation that happened in a room with other Saudi ministers, if true it would be hard or impossible for the Saudi side to miss it.

So one side or the other is lying or at the very least attempting some significant post-meeting spin and deceptive parsing of phrases.

A separate statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry which came immediately after the Biden meeting had said, addressing the United States... "[you] cannot impose your values by force. … The Crown Prince was quite clear with President Biden, and we have our own values and those are not going to align 100% with US values ever because we are very, very proud of our own traditions, our own values, our own faith."

Meanwhile it's clear from Biden's latest exchange with a reporter on the White House lawn (seen in the clip above) that he doesn't want to talk about the optics of his fist pump with bin Salman. A frustrated Biden chided the press: "talk about something that matters" - when confronted on the issue.

All in all, the trip was not only a big nothingburger, but ended in clear disappointment for the administration - and all they have to show for it is the scandal-causing fist bump with the man widely believed to have ordered the assassination of a Washington Post columnist...

For his part, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan said that, in response to Biden, the crown prince brought up the murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla by an Israeli sniper, as well as the torture committed by US soldiers at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib detention center, telling Biden that the two incidents “reflected badly on the US.”

Bin Farhan also called the controversial meeting between the US and Saudi leaders a “win” for Biden.

“I see the image as a win for President Biden. He got out of it a meeting with a key leader in the region,” he said.

This latest back-and-forth is underscored by Biden’s failure to secure commitments for increased oil production.

At the Jeddah Security and Development Summit on 16 July, MbS highlighted that Saudi Arabia would increase per day oil production from 11 million barrels to 13 million by 2027, “after which the kingdom will not have any additional capacity to increase production”.

The west is currently experiencing a crippling energy crisis due to sanctions imposed on Russia, and has been unsuccessful in its attempts to pressure OPEC+ to increase output.

Aside from failing to secure output increases – which would alleviate the worst inflation the US has seen in decades – the US president also failed to walk away with concrete advancement on the idea of a NATO-style Arab military alliance, one that would be hostile towards Iran.