The White House is defending President Joe Biden’s plans to visit Saudi Arabia and meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite US intelligence establishing that the prince ordered the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

U.S. officials felt that while Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia has yet to be confirmed, the pending visit would serve U.S. national interests, regardless of the crown prince’s involvement in the 2018 Washington Post writer Khashoggi’s murder.

“This trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, when the time comes, will be connected to the important goals of the American people in the Middle East,” said White House press secretary Karen Jean-Pierre.

“If Biden decides that it is in the interests of the United States to engage with a foreign leader and that such engagement can bring results, then he will,” she added. She noted that Saudi Arabia “has been a strategic partner of the United States for almost 80 years. There is no doubt about the coincidence of important interests” with the Kingdom.

There have been speculations about Biden’s first visit as president to Israel and Saudi Arabia during his planned trip to Germany and Spain to attend the G7 and NATO summits this month.

But the White House declined to confirm reports regarding the visit plan amid a spate of allegations that Biden had broken his earlier pledge to treat Saudi Arabia as a “rogue” over Khashoggi’s crime.

American media later reported that the visit could have been rescheduled for July.

Jean-Pierre did not confirm the news or deny that the administration had changed its plans. “People are asking if the visit has been postponed. The president himself said that the visit is being considered. But it has not been changed or postponed. Press reports are not true,” she said.

She added that a trip in June is “working on, but not frozen.”

Signs of a return to warmth in relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia came after Saudi Arabia resolved two of Biden’s priorities, agreeing to increase oil production and helping to extend the truce in Yemen.

Biden is also expected to visit Israel, where he will be asked specific questions about the slow pace of US diplomacy with Iran.