President Biden meets Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi on Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
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President Biden meets Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi on Saturday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Evan Vucci / AP
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – President Joe Biden, speaking at a summit of Arab leaders on Saturday, said the United States “will not leave the Middle East as he tries to ensure the stabilize in a volatile corner of the world and boost the worldwide flow of oil to reverse rising gas prices.
His remarks, delivered at the Gulf Cooperation Council on the final leg of a four-day Middle East tour, came amid concerns about Iran’s nuclear ambitions and support for Iran’s nuclear program. warriors in the region.
“We’re not going to walk away and leave the void to be filled by China, Russia or Iran,” Biden said. “We will try to build on this moment with dynamic, principled, American leadership.”
Although US forces continue to target terrorists in the region and remain deployed at bases across the Middle East, Biden thinks he is turning the page after his invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. country.
“Today, I can proudly say that the era of land wars in the region, which involved large numbers of American forces, is not yet possible,” he said.
He announced US$1 billion in aid to reduce hunger in the region, and he pressed his counterparts, many of whom lead repressive governments, to guarantee human rights, including women’s rights and allowing their citizens to speak openly.
“The future will be won by countries that bring out the full potential of their populations, including allowing people to ‘question and criticize their leaders without fear of reprisal,’” he said.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, convened the summit, giving him an opportunity to showcase his country’s heavyweight role in the region. He also suggested that the kingdom could pump more oil than it currently has, something Biden is hoping to see when the current production agreement between OPEC+ member countries expires in September.
Before the summit opened, Biden met privately with the leaders of Iraq, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, some of whom he has never sat with since taking office.
He invited Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who became president of the UAE two months ago, to visit the White House this year.
The Gulf Cooperation Council summit in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah is an opportunity for Biden to demonstrate his commitment to the region after spending most of his presidency focusing on the invasion. Russia’s influence over Ukraine and China’s growing influence in Asia.
President Biden arrives at King Abdulaziz International Airport on Friday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Evan Vucci / AP
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President Biden arrives at King Abdulaziz International Airport on Friday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Evan Vucci / AP
On Saturday, White House releases satellite images pointed out that Russian officials visited Iran in June and July to see potentially weapons-carrying drones the country was looking to purchase for use in Ukraine. The disclosure appears to be aimed at drawing a link between the European war and Arab leaders’ concerns about Iran.
To date, no country has been at the summit with the United States aggressively to punish Russia, a major foreign policy priority of the Biden administration. If anything, the UAE has emerged as a sort of financial haven for Russian billionaires and their multimillion-dollar yachts. Egypt remains open to Russian tourists.
A senior Biden administration official, who spoke briefly to reporters ahead of the summit, said Moscow’s efforts to buy drones from Tehran showed Russia was “bet a effective way into Iran.”
Biden’s attendance at Gulf Cooperation Council summit follows his Friday meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed, heir to the throne currently held by his father, King Salman.
The 79-year-old president initially alienated the 36-year-old royal because of human rights violations, especially the murder of the writer in the US Jamal Khashoggiwhich US intelligence officials believe was most likely approved by the crown prince.
But Biden decided he needed to repair the longstanding relationship between the two countries to address soaring gas prices and promote stability in the volatile region.
Biden and Crown Prince Mohammed greet each other with fist when the president arrived at the royal palace in Jeddah, a gesture quickly criticized by some legislators in the United States. as Journalist’s fiancee was killed. Biden later said he did not shy away from discussing Khashoggi’s killing when he and the crown prince met.
According to a US official familiar with the private conversations, the topic made for a “chilling” start to the discussion.
However, the atmosphere eventually turned more relaxed, the official said, as they talked about energy security, expanding high-speed internet access in the Middle East and other issues. Biden even managed to inject a bit of humor into the conversation at the end of the meeting, according to the unnamed official speaking about a private meeting.
The Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news network, citing an unnamed Saudi source, reported that Crown Prince Mohammed reacted to Biden’s mention of Khashoggi by saying efforts to impose a tuple can be counterproductive. He also said the US made a mistake at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where inmates were tortured and forced Biden to kill Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a recent Israeli raid on the city of Jenin. on the West Coast.
Adel Al-Jubeir, the kingdom’s foreign minister, called the visit a “huge success” and dismissed questions of friction between the two countries. .
“Maybe the skeptics are people who are looking for theater or drama. However, the reality is that the relationship is very solid,” he told Arab News, a Saudi news organization.
There is a sharp split on foreign policy among the nine Mideast heads of state attending the Gulf Cooperation Council.
For example, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE are trying to isolate and squeeze Iran on regional reach and proxies. On the other hand, Oman and Qatar have solid diplomatic relations with Iran and have acted as mediators for negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
Qatar recently hosted talks between US and Iranian officials as they tried to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Not only did Iran share a huge underwater gas field with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, but it also rushed to aid Qatar when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties and imposed sanctions. lasted for years for Qatar, ending shortly before Biden took office. .
Biden’s actions have disappointed some leaders. While the US played a key role in encouraging a months-long ceasefire in Yemen, his decision to reverse a Trump-era move that labeled Yemen’s Houthis as a terrorist group has angered the leaders of the Emirate and Saudi Arabia.
