White House denies Saudi claim MBS negotiated Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout prisoner swap

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The White House has denied claims that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman negotiated the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap for a notorious Russian arms dealer dubbed the “Merchant of Death”.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted on Thursday that – despite the prisoner exchange taking place on middle eastern soil – the only nations involved in the negotiations were the US and Russia.

“The only countries that negotiated this deal were the United States and Russia,” she said.

“There was no mediation involved.”

Saudi Arabia and the UAE sought to take credit for the release of Ms Griner, issuing a joint statement claiming that MBS acted as a mediator between Russia and Moscow.

“The success of the mediation efforts was a reflection of the mutual and solid friendship between their two countries and the United States of America and the Russian Federation,” the joint statement said.

It said the episode “highlighted the important role played by the leaderships of the two brotherly countries in promoting dialogue between all parties”.

The claim came just two days after a US judge dismissed a lawsuit against MBS over the murder of US journalist citizen and journalist Jamal Khashoggi and months after President Joe Biden controversially met with the crown prince.

Khashoggi – a Washington Post journalist and an outspoken critic of the Saudi government – was murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by a team of intelligence operatives with ties to MBS on 2 October 2018. His body was brutally dismembered with a bone saw.

The Saudi government initially denied any involvement in the killing before going on to claim that the operatives killed the US citizen accidentally while trying to extradite him to Saudi Arabia.

US intelligence agencies later concluded that MBS had ordered the hit.

In July, Mr Biden came under fire as he met with MBS and greeted him with a friendly fist-bump.

The meeting was especially controversial given that, during his 2020 White House campaign, Mr Biden had vowed to make a “pariah” of Saudi Arabia.

On Tuesday, US District Court Judge John Bates dismissed a civil suit brought by Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz and the pro-democracy group Dawn. The judge said that his hands were tied over the matter because the Biden administration had already recommended that MBS is entitled to sovereign immunity as the leader of the nation.

On Thursday, Ms Jean-Pierre pushed back at the statement from the UAE and Saudi Arabia over their involvement in the negotiations that secured Ms Griner’s freedom.

She told reporters, that while the US was “grateful” to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their roles in the prisoner swap, they played no part in negotiations.

"We are grateful for the UAE ... for facilitating the use of their territory for the exchange to take place,” she said.

“We are also grateful to other countries including Saudi Arabia” for raising the issue of detained Americans with the Russian government, she said, adding that “when it comes to her release, it was between the US government and Russia”.

Ms Griner, 32, finally touched down on US soil for the first time in 10 months on Friday morning, landing at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio at around 5.30am ET.

She will be examined and receive any necessary medical treatment at the army medical centre before returning to her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona.

Her release comes after the Biden administration agreed with Russia to exchange the WNBA star for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Footage showed the one-for-one exchange of Ms Griner and Bout taking place on the tarmac of a runway in the UAE on Thursday, following weeks of negotiations between Washington and Moscow.

The deal failed to include US Marine Paul Whelan who has been detained in Russia for the last four years.

Mr Whelan told CNN he was “greatly disappointed” to learn he was not part of the prisoner swap, saying: “I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”

President Joe Biden insisted on Thursday that “we’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan” and vowed to “never give up” securing his release, as the swap divided opinion across the country.

Ms Griner had spent the last 10 months in prison in Russia after being detained at an airport in February for allegedly carrying illegal cannibas oil in her luggage.

Her detainment was largely regarded as a political move from Moscow, coming just days before President Vladimir Putin declared a full-scale war on Ukraine.

At her trial in July, Ms Griner pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

On 17 November, she was moved to a penal colony in Mordovia.

For the past 10 months, Ms Griner’s family and supporters had been urging the Biden administration to secure her release.