WATCH: Biden Ends Suspense – Greets MBS With Fist Bump Ahead of Fraught Meeting

One highly-debated issue related to President Joe Biden’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has now been settled: how he would greet the controversial leader. Friday afternoon, the two men shared, not a handshake, but a fist bump.

Biden’s decision to sit down with MBS has been the focus of much criticism, including from his fellow Democrats, due to the Saudis’ ties to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Prior to the trip, the White House reportedly informed Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office that “due to the surge in COVID-19 infections in the US and Israel, the president will refrain from shaking hands.” Fox News’ Peter Doocy was far from the only one to view this announcement with skepticism, noting that Biden had shook plenty of hands at recent NATO and G-7 meetings in Europe.

“They say it’s Covid,” said Doocy on Wednesday. “But it is also just coincidentally a way to avoid a photo that they really do not want, which is the one shaking hands with MBS.”

On Friday, CNN aired the video of the two men walking towards each other and fist bumping as Biden arrived at the royal palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

“They greeted each other with a little fist bump, not a formal shaking of hands, for whatever any of that means,” reported Wolf Blitzer, who observed that it looked like both of them were smiling.

The talks were scheduled to continue through most of Friday and Saturday, and then Biden would meet with members of the Gulf Corporation Council in an effort to convince the oil-producing Gulf nations to increase their production levels to help reduce gas prices in the U.S.

U.S. officials had “high hopes” that they could “recalibrate the U.S.-Saudi relationship” and get some progress on the oil production issue, said Blitzer. “So there is a lot going on right now.”

Watch the video above via CNN.