Josh Rogin: Biden Mentioning Khashoggi ‘Seemed Like a Box-Checking Exercise’ — Saudis ‘Helping Russia Fight Us’ with Oil Imports

On Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” author, Washington Post columnist, and CNN political analyst Josh Rogin stated that President Joe Biden’s mention of Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia “seemed like a box-checking exercise. I didn’t hear that Biden mentioned any of the American hostages that are still in Saudi Arabia right now,” and that the trip failed to use “the leverage that we have” over Saudi Arabia, a country that is “not helping us fight Russia. They’re helping Russia fight us.”

Rogin stated, “I think no surprises. They transferred a couple Red Sea islands to Saudi control in exchange for not making Israeli planes fly all the way around Saudi Arabia, which was ridiculous in the first place. He mentioned Khashoggi, seemed like a box-checking exercise. I didn’t hear that Biden mentioned any of the American hostages that are still in Saudi Arabia right now, some on exit bans and some in Saudi prisons for tweets and other nonsense like that. I’m not sure if they mentioned that at all. Investment in 5g, sure, that’s great. But I’ll just point all your viewers right now to the reports today that the Saudi regime doubled its imports of Russian oil this quarter, doubled. In other words, they’re not helping us fight Russia. They’re helping Russia fight us. … I don’t think the Saudis are going to run into Russian arms if we withdraw. I don’t think they can depend on the Russian military considering what we’ve seen. I don’t think they want to bet their security on the Chinese either. And what we’re seeing here is sort of an acknowledgment that, oh, well, yeah, we need the Gulf. We need Saudi Arabia. But what if we thought about that again? What if we realized that actually, they need us and we used the leverage that we have, rather than succumb to the leverage that they have? And that’s just a thought I leave as we continue to follow this trip.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett