(Washington) The street in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington was renamed, Wednesday, after the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whose memory was honored a month before Joe Biden’s controversial visit to the Gulf kingdom.
Posted yesterday at 5:41 PM.
The US Metropolitan City Council has unveiled a “Jamal Khashoggi Way” sign in honor of the dissident who was killed in his country’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Coincidentally, the ceremony was held the day after the announcement of the US President’s trip to Saudi Arabia in mid-July, during which he is scheduled to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite accusing US intelligence of “endorsing” the assassination of the prime minister. Columnist at Washington Post.
City Council President Phil Mendelsohn, who voted unanimously in favor of the new name, said the new street would serve as a “permanent reminder” and “a memorial so that the memory of Jamal Khashoggi does not go away.”
Tawakkol Karman, the 2011 Yemeni activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said at the ceremony that a future presidential visit means “Biden has abandoned his commitment to defending human rights around the world.”
Sarah Leah Whitson of the organization Democratic Human Rights in the Arab World Now, founded by Jamal Khashoggi, denounced the “shameful capitulation” of the democratic leader.
Pointing to the embassy in front of her, she said, “We want to remind the people who hide behind these doors that every day, every hour, every minute, from now on this will be Jamal Khashoggi Street.” “We will hold them responsible for killing our friend,” he added […] Who dared challenge the tyranny of Mohammed bin Salman?
Joe Biden had estimated before his election to the White House that Saudi Arabia should be treated as a “pariah” country, and, when he came to power, promised to “recalibrate” relations with this strategic partner of America. by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump. And he had announced after that that he refused direct exchange with Prince “MBS”, until he announced the opposite on Tuesday.
This is not the first symbolic coup for the city of Washington.
Thus the Russian embassy is located in the “Boris Nemtsov Plaza”, named after the reformist politician who was killed near the Kremlin in 2015.
On the other hand, the desire to rename the Chinese Embassy Street in honor of Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Chinese dissident, who died in custody, has faced strong opposition from Beijing.
