Saudi crown prince says he does not care if Biden misunderstands him

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said he does not care whether US President Joe Biden misunderstood things about him, saying Biden should be focusing on America's interests, in an interview with The Atlantic monthly published on Thursday.

Since Biden took office in January 2021, the long-standing strategic partnership between Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, and Washington has come under strain over Riyadh's human rights record.

Prince Mohammed, the Saudi ruler widely known as MbS, suggested in separate but related remarks carried by the Saudi state news agency SPA that Riyadh could choose to reduce investments in the United States,

"Simply, I do not care,” the crown prince said when asked by The Atlantic whether Biden misunderstood things about him. He said it was up to Biden "to think about the interests of America".

“We don’t have the right to lecture you in America,” he added. “The same goes the other way.”

"I feel that human rights law wasn’t applied to me...Article XI of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that any person is innocent until proven guilty,” he said.

MbS has wanted to return the focus to social and economic reforms that he has pushed through to open up Saudi Arabia and diversify its oil-dependent economy.

They do not appear to include wide political reform.

Asked whether Saudi rule could transform into a constitutional monarchy, MbS said no. “Saudi Arabia is based on pure monarchy,” he said.

Prince Mohammed also told The Atlantic that Riyadh's objective was to maintain and strengthen its "long, historical" relationship with America. He said Saudi investments in the United States amounted to $800 billion.

"In the same way we have the possibility of boosting our interests, we have the possibility of reducing them," SPA quoted him as saying.

While the crown prince enjoyed close relations with Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, Biden has taken a tougher stance with the Gulf Arab powerhouseand has so far chosen only to speak with King Salman bin Abdulaziz, not MbS.