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US President Joe Biden concluded his Middle East tour, his first since taking office, by affirming his country’s commitment to the role it plays in the region, at a regional summit held in the Saudi city of Jeddah, which brought him together with the leaders of the Gulf states in addition to Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.
Biden, whose presidential plane left Saudi Arabia, assured Arab leaders that his country would remain fully involved in the Middle East and would not leave the arena for other global powers to exercise their influence.
“We will not leave and leave a void that will be filled by China, Russia or Iran,” he said in his speech to the summit.
He added that the United States is committed to ensuring that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
For his part, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in his speech that there is a need for unified efforts to support the global economy and that unrealistic policies regarding energy sources will only lead to inflation.
He added: “Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding major energy sources will lead in the coming years to unprecedented inflation, an increase in energy prices, high unemployment and exacerbation of serious social and security problems.”
The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, which is the largest oil exporter in the world, said that the Covid-19 pandemic and the geopolitical situation required more joint efforts to support the global economy, and that environmental challenges required a “realistic and responsible” approach to the gradual transition to sustainable energy sources.
Biden held a series of quick bilateral meetings with the leaders of Iraq, Egypt and the UAE ahead of the expanded summit through which the US president sought to establish a regional defense alliance.
photo released, Getty Images
Biden delivers his speech at the regional summit in Jeddah
The Egyptian presidency said that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed food security and disruptions in energy supplies with Biden.
Relations between Egypt and the United States had gone through a difficult period during the first months of Biden’s presidency amid disagreements over human rights, before Egypt’s success in brokering a ceasefire in Gaza in May 2021 pushed relations back to normal.
“We are working to implement the strategic framework agreement between Iraq and America on education and culture,” Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi said in a press conference after his meeting with the US President. He also thanked “the United States for its support in the fight against terrorism.”
Biden sought, through his meeting with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to remove the chill in relations between the United States and these two oil-producing countries.
He extended an invitation to UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed to visit the White House before the end of this year in a conciliatory gesture towards the Gulf state.
On Friday, Biden arrived in Saudi Arabia on the next leg of his Middle East tour from Israel, which he visited at the beginning of the tour.
Saudi Arabia has been a decades-old ally of the United States, but Biden once vowed to make it a “pariah” country because of its human rights record, especially the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden met with King Salman and the Crown Prince, the de facto ruler of the country, Muhammad bin Salman, despite widespread criticism of this meeting, which comes after tension in relations between the two men, after US intelligence published information that Prince Muhammad was “sincere” on the operation that targeted Khashoggi, which provoked his murder and the dismemberment of his body. Inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, a global outcry.
Biden told reporters Friday evening that he had raised the Khashoggi case in his conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman and said, “I made it clear (to him) that if something like that happened again, they would get the same response and more.”
The Saudi crown prince denied any role in the killing of Khashoggi and said that the incident was unfortunate and that his country had taken all legal measures to ensure that this does not happen again.
photo released, Getty Images
Biden said he discussed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
Biden had faced pressure to raise the issue of human rights in his meeting with Arab leaders, after dozens of British and American lawmakers invited him to discuss the “widespread use of repression” in Egypt in his talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
US-Saudi agreements
Biden asked Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to increase their oil production in order to reduce high gasoline prices in the United States, which threaten the chances of Democrats in the midterm elections in November.
But Biden tried on Friday to reduce expectations that his visit to the Middle East this week would yield immediate gains.
He said he is doing everything in his power to increase oil supplies to the United States, adding that tangible results will not be noticeable until two weeks have passed.
On Friday, Riyadh and Washington signed 18 agreements in areas including energy, space, health and investment, including the development of fifth and sixth generation technology for mobile phone networks, according to a Saudi statement.
A separate joint statement published by Saudi media said that the two parties referred to “the importance of their strategic economic and investment cooperation, especially in light of the current crisis in Ukraine and its consequences, stressing their commitment to the stability of global energy markets.”
The statement added that Biden emphasized Washington’s commitment to supporting Saudi Arabia’s security and the need to deter Iran.
The White House said Saudi Arabia had agreed to connect the GCC’s electricity grid with Iraq, which relies heavily on energy from Iran.
photo released, Getty Images
The US and Saudi sides signed 18 agreements Friday in the fields of energy, space, health, and investment
A senior US administration official told reporters, “Russia is practically betting on Iran. We are betting on a more integrated, stable, peaceful and prosperous Middle East,” in a clear reference to the visit that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to make to Iran next week.
Biden said that his focus in the tour, along with oil, was “positioning America in the region for the future.”
Normalization with Israel
White House officials took advantage of Biden’s tour to encourage integration between Israel and Arab countries with the aim of establishing a defensive alliance in the face of what the United States describes as the Iranian threat to the region.
Saudi Arabia had refused to join the US-brokered “Abraham Accords” that resulted in the establishment of relations in 2020 between Israel and two of Saudi Arabia’s neighbors, the UAE and Bahrain.
Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said that it will abide by the decades-old Arab League position not to establish formal relations with Israel until the conflict with the Palestinians is resolved.
photo released, Getty Images
Biden meets Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at a hotel in Jeddah in a bilateral meeting before the expanded summit
But Saudi Arabia has begun to show signs of greater openness towards Israel, as it announced on Friday that it would lift the restrictions imposed on the passage of planes going to and coming from Israel over Saudi airspace, in a move that Biden welcomed, describing it as historic.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid went further, saying: “This is the first official step in normalization with Saudi Arabia.”
Iranian threat
A senior official in the US administration had said earlier that Biden would discuss regional missile and defense capabilities when he meets Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia, where he will seek to integrate Israel into a new alliance, which common concerns from Iran call for its formation.
“We believe that there is great value in integrating as many capabilities as possible in the region, and certainly Israel has great air and missile defense capabilities, as it needs it. But we will discuss this issue bilaterally with these countries,” the official told reporters.
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said Friday that Biden would “clearly articulate” his vision and strategy for US engagement in the Middle East.
In light of the economic crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, Biden announced $1 billion in short- and long-term aid for food security in the Middle East and North Africa.
A senior official in the US administration said that the Gulf countries will commit to providing $3 billion over the next two years to a global infrastructure program aimed at countering China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
On the other hand, the Gulf states, which refused to stand with the West in confronting Russia in the Ukrainian crisis, are seeking to obtain a firm commitment from the United States in strategic relations with it, which had been strained after what was considered an American distance from the region.
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have been frustrated by US conditions on arms sales and their exclusion from indirect negotiations between the US and Iran aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, which they view as flawed because it fails to address regional concerns about Tehran’s missile program and behavior.
Israel, which shares these two countries’ concerns about Iran, encouraged Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia in the hope that it would result in a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia, Israel and the rest of the Arab countries similar to the relations that were strengthened with the UAE and Bahrain following the signing of the Abraham agreements.
However, observers believe that the American plan to link the air defense systems of the countries of the region may not be accepted by the Arab countries that do not maintain relations with Israel and refrain from participating in an alliance directed against Iran, which has built a network of loyalists in Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.