Would-be presidential candidate pledges to make Saudi Arabia a ‘pariah’

Former US Vice President Joe Biden warned yesterday that he would call to account “Saudi Arabia, China and other counties for violating human rights.” Biden made his comments during a campaign debate for would-be presidential candidates.

“If I win the presidency,” he insisted, “a human rights agenda will be the base of the US engagement with the world.”

Biden also pointed out that the threat from North Korea had become “worse” under incumbent President Donald Trump. “As US president, I’ll coordinate closely with our allies to hold China accountable for not putting pressure on North Korea.”

Responding to a question about the murder of former Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia’s ongoing war in Yemen, Biden noted that he would end arms supplies and turn the Saudi regime – headed by the de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman — into a “pariah”.

“I would make it very clear we were not going to sell weapons of war to them [Saudi Arabia],” the US politician reiterated. He stressed that he would make the Saudi government “pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are.”

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