Biden: Saudi Arabia will be 'held accountable'

US President Joe Biden said on Friday that Saudi Arabia would be held "accountable for human rights abuses". Biden was asked by Univision journalist Ilia Calderon if he was going to press Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to "comply with human rights", after the US released a newly-declassified report about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The report released on Friday said that Saudi Arabia's crown prince likely approved the killing of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. "I spoke yesterday with the king, not the prince. Made it clear to him that the rules are changing, and we're going to be announcing significant changes today and on Monday," said Biden in response.

"We are going to hold them accountable for human rights abuses. And we're going to make sure in fact, and if they want to deal with us, they have to deal with it in a way where human rights abuses are dealt with. And we're trying to do that across the world, but particularly here," he said.

The intelligence findings were long known to many U.S. officials and, even as they remained classified, had been reported with varying degrees of precision. But the public rebuke of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is still a touchstone in U.S-Saudi relations.

(Image Credit: AP)