Saudi Arabia: The significance of Biden's fist bump with crown prince
ReutersIt was a striking photograph. The US president and the man he'd called a pariah, bumping fists in the gilded splendour of Jeddah's royal palace.
Saudi Arabia was always going to be the controversial stop on Joe Biden's first trip to the Middle East as US president.
Just four weeks earlier, Mr Biden had said he wouldn't meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on his visit here.
As he settled into the White House during his first few weeks in the job, he refused to even speak to Saudi Arabia's de-facto ruler.
Mr Biden made the "pariah" comment on the US election campaign trail back in 2019.
It came after the CIA concluded the crown prince had approved the brutal killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Istanbul consulate.
Relations were frosty. Then came the announcement of the president's visit.
The stage was set long before Air Force One roared loud and low over Jeddah, filling the quiet sky with the sound of powerful jet engines.
Flags had been hung, the green and white of Saudi Arabia set against the USA's stars and stripes. They lined the main route from the airport to the royal palace, flanking roads that had been closed and cleared. Police vehicles, their lights flashing in the sun, were poised every few yards to maintain the tightest of security.
The Saudis knew the world would be watching this meeting.
They wanted the rest of the Middle East, and the international community, to sit up and take notice of the favour they had been granted by the US president.
In the hours after the talks between the two leaders here in Jeddah, I sat down with Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir.
I pushed him to explain why - despite such modernisation in the kingdom - things like free speech, activism and dissent against the regime are still frowned upon and, ultimately, punished.
"What you may call a dissident, we call a terrorist. What you may call somebody expressing their opinion, we call incitement," he replied.
"When somebody gives money to a group that murders people, is that expressing their opinion or is this funding murder":[]}