WASHINGTON CNN reported on Thursday that US President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could meet for the first time as soon as next month, citing various sources.

Authorities from the Biden administration are in negotiations with Saudi officials about holding an in-person meeting while Biden is away next month, according to the story.

The White House said it couldn’t confirm whether Biden was scheduled to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On Thursday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan claimed he spoke with Saudi Arabia on oil production.

Biden’s decisions last year to reduce US support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen and to reveal intelligence that the kingdom’s de facto ruler, the crown prince, approved an operation to capture or kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in Turkey in 2018, strained US-Saudi relations.

The Saudi government has denied that the crown prince, known as MBS, was involved in Khashoggi’s death. A team of operatives loyal to the crown prince assassinated and mutilated the writer, a US resident who penned opinion articles for the Washington Post critical of MBS, in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

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Biden’s efforts to resurrect the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which Gulf allies think offers too little to prevent Tehran from gaining an atomic bomb, have strained relations between the US and the world’s top oil exporter.

Washington has also attempted, but failed, to persuade Saudi Arabia to pump more oil than the tiny increase agreed upon within the OPEC+ production group to compensate for prospective losses in Russian supply following the West’s sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. Saudi Arabia has declined to take sides in the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.