The US president promised a new “vision” for the Middle East
The president of the USA Joe Biden departed Saudi Arabia after a controversial visit during which he sought to reassert Washington’s influence in the Middle East and promised a new “vision” for the region.
The 79-year-old US president, who began his tour by visiting Israel and the Palestinian Territories, stayed for less than 24 hours in Saudi Arabia, where he met with many leaders and high-ranking officials of the Gulf Arab states. Among them was the powerful crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman.
In the speech he delivered in Jeddah, at the meeting attended by six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC – Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, Biden he promised that his country “will not turn its back” on the Middle East, leaving a vacuum that “China, Russia or Iran” could fill.
Noting that he is the first US president since the attacks of September 11, 2001 to visit the Middle East without the US military being involved in a large-scale operation in the region, he told Arab leaders that the US “will invest in building a better future in the region, in cooperation with all of you”.
As he has come under fire for his visit to Saudi Arabia, which has been accused of serious human rights abuses, Biden stressed that “the future belongs to countries (…) whose citizens can challenge and criticize their leaders without fear retaliation”.
“Tragedy for Saudi Arabia”
The Biden administration says it wants to promote a new “vision” for the Middle East, based on dialogue and economic and military cooperation – against the background of the process of normalizing Israel’s diplomatic relations with Arab countries. That did not stop Biden from warning, clearly referring to, but not naming, Tehran, where Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit this week: “We will not tolerate one country trying to dominate another in the region through military aid , raids or threats”.
This trip, however, will be remembered for the “handshake-fist” that the American president exchanged with Mohammed bin Salman, whom the American secret services blamed for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Biden had said before the election that would make Saudi Arabia a “pariah country”.
The US president confirmed on Friday, in a hastily arranged press conference, that he had raised the issue at the start of his meeting with the prince. According to Saudi Arabia’s deputy foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, interviewed by CNN, the prince “explained” to Biden that “this was a tragedy for Saudi Arabia” and that those responsible for Khashoggi’s murder were brought to justice. justice and “are now paying for their crime”. For the kingdom, the case is considered over.
Many major US newspapers ran the photo of the “handshake” on their front pages while activists accused Biden of abandoning his values ​​for a few barrels of oil. Rising gas prices in the U.S. are a serious problem for Democrats just months before the midterm elections.
“I’m doing everything possible to increase production for the U.S.,” Biden said Friday, saying he had fruitful talks with the Saudis, the tangible results of which will be visible “in a couple of weeks.”
After the session ended the leaders gathered for the “family” photo but this time Biden kept his distance from the crown prince.
Agreements and disagreements
Saudi Arabia and the US signed 18 cooperation agreements in various fields (space, finance, energy, health), according to the statement issued by Riyadh. Washington is also trying to find a way to normalize Saudi Arabia’s relations with Israel, two countries that do not have formal diplomatic relations. In this context, Biden welcomed Riyadh’s “historic” decision to open its airspace to all airlines, including Israeli ones. He also announced that progress had been made on the issue of a strategically important islet located in the Red Sea between Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel.
But Saudi Arabia dashed US and Israeli hopes that the summit could help lay the groundwork for a regional security alliance that would include Israel to counter Iranian threats. Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal Farhan al-Saud, said he was not aware of any discussion of a defense alliance between the Gulf states and Israel and that the Sunni kingdom was not involved in such talks. He even told reporters after the meeting that Riyadh’s decision to open its airspace to all air carriers had nothing to do with establishing diplomatic ties with Israel and was not a prelude to further steps.
The White House also said that it was agreed to interconnect the electrical networks of the Gulf countries and that of Iraq, which depends to a large extent on the energy it imports from Iran – the “black sheep” of both the Americans and the Saudis.
The US pledged to provide a billion dollars to support food security “in the short and long term” in the Middle East and North Africa while Biden invited to Washington his UAE counterpart, Mohammed bin Zayed, with whom the relations had cooled recently.
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