The street in front of Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington was renamed on Wednesday for Jamal Khashoggi as activists vowed never to forget the murdered journalist before President Joe Biden's planned visit to the kingdom.
The capital's local government changed signs on one block in front of the embassy to read “Jamal Khashoggi Way” in honour of the Saudi dissident who was killed inside the consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The street will serve as “a constant reminder, a memorial to Jamal Khashoggi's memory that cannot be covered up”, said Phil Mendelson, president of the District of Columbia Council that voted unanimously to rename the stretch of New Hampshire Avenue, which also lies near the Watergate building.
The previously scheduled dedication came a day after the White House announced that Mr Biden will travel next month to Saudi Arabia and meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Mr Biden had previously pledged to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over human rights concerns. But several issues, including soaring petrol prices due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have seen a recalibration of the relationship.
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Jordan's King Abdullah II and US vice president Joe Biden attend a military demonstration at a Joint Training Center outside the city of Zarqa, northeast of the capital Amman, in 2016. AFP -
US Vice President Joseph Biden shakes hands with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas as they arrive for a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2016. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with Morocco's King Mohammed VI at the royal palace in Fez in 2014. AFP -
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal welcomes US Vice President Joe Biden at the Riyadh airbase in 2011. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden reaches out to shake hands with Kuwait's prime minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in 2011. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden gestures during his meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Baghdad in 2011. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden talka with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman at the presidential palace of Baabda east of Beirut in 2009. AFP -
US Vice President Joseph Biden shakes hand with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in 2009. AFP -
US Vice President Joe Biden meets with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora at the governmental palace in Beirut in 2009. AFP
Jamal Khashoggi Way is the latest street renamed in Washington as a political signal.
Russia's embassy lies on Boris Nemtsov Plaza, named after the reformist politician killed near the Kremlin in 2015.
An effort to name the plaza outside of China's embassy for Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Prize-winning writer and democracy activist who died in prison, floundered after intense opposition from Beijing.
Other governments have sometimes acted similarly with the US, whose consulate in Kolkata is on a street named after Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh.
- AFP contributed to this report.
