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Rekindling ties with royalty, the US president has visited a kingdom he once promised to make a Pariah. Joe Biden says his visit to Saudi Arabia is worth the political cost. Will the visit pave the way for a new partnership with the region?
US
President Joe Biden arrived in Saudi Arabia after his harsh comments about the
kingdom in the past. "We were actually going to make them
pay the price and actually make them the Pariahs that they are." A
pledge he made as a presidential candidate after a CIA report revealed that
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the killing of journalist Jamal
Khashoggi in 2018. His visit aims to restore relations and convince the state
to pump more oil to lower fuel prices in the United States.
"I'm
doing everything I can to increase the supply to the United States of America…,"
Biden said.
However,
the strained relationship has made it a challenge for Biden to celebrate the
victory. A fist bump with the King-- a moment that was not well received in the
United States-- was criticized severely. Fred Ryan, Khashoggi's publisher at
the Washington Post, called it shameful. And Khashoggi's fiancee on twitter warned
Biden that any future victim would have his blood on his hands.
"I'm sorry she feels the way I was straight back then I was straight forward today." He [King Mohammad Bin Salman] basically said he wasn't personally responsible for it. I indicated that I thought he was.” Biden remarked over the issue of Khashoggi. Earlier in Biden's meeting with the crown prince, the press confronted the two men. “Will you apologize to his [Jamal Khashoggi] family?” a journalist posed question to the King. The Crown Prince appeared to be smiling and left a serious question unanswered.
Why relations got tensed
Saudi
Arabia and the United States have a long-standing strategic partnership. It
dates back to 1945 when the US agreed to provide protection to Saudi rulers in
exchange for access to oil reserves. During the 1973 Israel-Palestine War,
Riyadh imposed an oil embargo on countries that supported Israel, including the
United States. In the 1990s, during the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein, Saudi
Arabia served as a base for millions of American troops, but the 9/11 attacks
caused a setback in relations. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and
four years ago the United States imposed sanctions on the kingdom in response
to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Watch our animated current affairs: Click to watch full video, Right-Wing politics and Human rights
What was the benefit of visiting
Saudi Arabia?
The
concept came out after the Russian war on Ukraine revealed that no matter how
much people try to get away from oil, it's still a very important commodity,
and then Saudi Arabia is still not just a major player, but an important global
player. Moreover, it also proved itself as a regional player. (Abdulaziz)
This is embarrassing for Joe Biden
and the importance of oil:
The
president was eager to find increased sources of oil production. But it looks
like a major drawback for him and it has certainly surprised many American
analysts that a superpower, the United States, looks weak and submissive in
such a situation. It's certainly important that the president take some
advantage of oil production because oil and energy prices are obviously remain
highly important for the American people with the upcoming election, but Biden’s
commitment to human rights may lower his reputation-- a beat that will hurt him
among progressives in the Democratic Party. (Doug)
An element of GCC?
The
problem here is that the president was led by interests more than values. It
was a matter of real politics. Both parties were already keen to measure such
optics and meetings were already being arranged. The president wants to say
that this was mostly a visit to see the GCC with regional countries and not a
bilateral with the Saudis.
Saudi
Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
Adelaide Jubeir, said
the killing of Jamal Khashoggi
was
a terrible mistake.
Is it time to move on?
Clearly,
both states have moved on, but there remains an element of elite-level frost
between Joe Biden and, of course, the crown prince that won't thaw quickly. The
fact that Joe Biden was trying to feign his visit to Saudi Arabia is not about the
Kingdom, it's actually going to meet with the GCC states. It is about trying to
make peace with Israel and the Arab countries which has left a bitter taste in
the mouth of the Saudi ruling elite. (Abdulaziz)
A possible alternative to the US?
They
could have arranged with Venezuela to bring back its oil or if they had acted
more quickly to resume negotiations with Iran last year. The second is to
recognize the amount of oil they are likely to receive from Saudi Arabia and
the Emirates over the time is not clear that this it is going to have a major
impact on oil prices. Further, the problem for the president is that no one in
Washington that meeting was aimed at visiting the GCC because Kuwait is an
important country, but the president did not visit it to meet the Emir. It, very
clearly, was a meeting with the Saudis. (Doug)
Geopolitical perspective?
The commitment to
pump oil will
add about 13
million barrels
to that over the
long term.
It
doesn't seem like it's going to have drastic impact, but he came home saying
that I've talked to the Saudis that I'm going to get oil. It's almost a false
narrative because basically prices are going down anyway. But it is pertinent
to note that this is the same administration that Biden was a part of four
years ago that has lost ground in the region and elsewhere and Biden is going
to make the most of this trip. It is especially important from a geopolitical
point of view not to leave a wide vacuum for Russia and China. Iraq's
integration into the wider GCC electricity
network is a big step in the direction of gradually moving it out of Iran's
orbit. Much of it has geopolitical tendency as the US lost ground in other
regions as well like Eastern Europe, partly as a result of Obama administration
policies. (Zaid)
Addressing
the meeting, Joe Biden said that
Washington
was not going away.
They
would not leave a vacuum
to
be filled by Russia, China or Iran.
Has it been successful for Israel?
This
shows that political support for Israel in America is bipartisan. The
Democratic side, along with progressives who are deeply interested in
championing the cause of Palestinian human rights, are as concerned about
maintaining that commitment. While this is certainly politically beneficial in
the short term, in the long term the question of what happens in Israel is far
more important. It's heading for another election that will undoubtedly be more
on the right. What about the Palestinians? According to some estimates, there are
currently more Arabs between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. So,
the question is how does Israel manage to be both democratic and Jewish? Also,
finding a settlement for the millions of people who are under occupation is a
critical issue that can be explosive. It seems that nothing will come of this
journey. The president made an effort and visited the West Bank, but that
didn’t have much impact on the Palestinians. (Abdulaziz)
Saudi Arabia gives airspace to
Israeli planes to fly: Smoothening Arab-Israel Ties:
This
is a small step for Israel, perhaps a giant step for the region. It is simply
acknowledging what is already happening through third countries. Pilgrimage is
mandatory for Arabs, Jews and Palestinians in Saudi Arabia. But is this a
precursor to the full acceptance of the Abraham
accords? Most definitely not. There are some decision makers in Israel who
were able to go far enough with Abraham's covenant for very little. In response
to the Palestinian question, the president made an urgent visit to the West
Bank. He wanted a Palestinian state that was viable, independent, autonomous
and, crucially, contiguous. But he’s just making the right noises. Basically, a
major step towards regional peace requires major progress on this issue. Five
elections have been held in the country in three years. It is most likely that
Netanyahu will return despite his tainted legacy and it will be a very
different Israel that the Arab world will be dealing with. (Zaid)
Read more: Biden's visit to Asia
This
is a very small step that has taken place and it must be contextualized. If we
look at the Abraham accords, one thing that can be taken away is that it
shifted the burden of concessions from Israel to America. In other words, one
aspect that now counts as part of the calculus is not only how much progress
has been made on the Palestinian-Israeli issue, but also who is the right
person in the White House. Quite frankly, flyover rights are too important for Biden
to have positive outcome from the pro-Israel contingencies in America. These
flyover rights should be seen as a gesture by the Saudi ruling elite to enable
Biden to politicize it the way he wants. In terms of normalization, there are
still many things that need to be done and one of those things is having the
right person in the White House and Biden doesn't seem like the person the
Saudi ruling elite wants to have as the man to achieve that feat. (Abdulaziz)
Does America need to create a new
security umbrella in the Middle East that includes Israel, Egypt and the Gulf
states?
Certainly,
for an American perspective, this would help balance the power in the region
where it would not necessarily expect US military involvement for a specific contingency.
The American people are wary of wars in the Middle East. So being able to bring
together Israel, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and probably other GCC members,
is an opportunity to help create some form of collective security with a
significant military force that is at least initially may be able to deal with
problems that arise with somewhat less presence of the US in the region. This
would give the United States a potential security advantage to help stabilize
the Middle East. (Doug)
Abdulaziz
Alghashian, Research fellow at SEPAD, focusing on Saudi foreign policy.
Doug Bandow, Senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
Zaid Belbagi,
Managing partner at Hardcastle Advisory, a political consulting firm.
Disclaimer:
Global Lenses takes these arguments of renowned personalities from different
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