US President Joe Biden’s three-day trip to the Palestinian territories and Saudi Arabia was ineffective. Despite the expectation of bringing important signed agreements back to the United States, Biden returned to the country empty-handed.
On Friday (15), the American president had a controversial meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Bin Salman. Biden told a news conference that he told Salman that he holds him responsible for the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The next day, Biden met with leaders from the Gulf, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq. At this latest meeting, uninhabited islands in the Red Sea were returned from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, with the promise of withdrawing soldiers who are part of a United Nations contingent.
The success of the agreement, however, depended little on the presence of the American leader. In addition, Biden did not guarantee results in the main objectives of the trip:
Did not achieve rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Israel
On the contrary, after the leaders’ meeting on Saturday, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan al-Saoud, played down the chances of opening the airspace to Israeli flights to Asia. “This has nothing to do with the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel”, reinforced the head of Saudi diplomacy.
Furthermore, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have made it clear that they are not willing to form a military alliance against Tehran.
It did not pave the way for Western military development in the region
In March, a regional meeting in Israel, with US support, launched the proposal for an “Arab NATO”. With it, Biden intended to strengthen the idea of an American-Israeli umbrella in the region, but the US president failed to win over potential allies.
Egypt and Jordan criticized Israel for taking part in the conference in an attempt to develop this project. And Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, said his country “is not part of any security alliance in the region and has no intention of doing so.”
Did not prevent Iran’s nuclear strengthening
Despite the Arab countries worrying about the arms development of the neighboring country, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia continue to be reluctant to bet on an anti-Iran policy.
After the weekend’s meetings with the United States, Gargash announced that the country would soon have an ambassador in Tehran. “We have differences with Iran, but we are in the process of rebuilding relations, through economic cooperation,” assured the Arab minister at a press conference.
On Sunday (17), Kamal Kharrazi, the senior adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, told Al Jazeera he would never negotiate his missile program and regional policy. “Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb, but there has been no decision by the country to build it,” he added.
Didn’t get any news about energy
Faced with the global energy crisis resulting from the war in Ukraine, Biden was also intent on convincing Saudi Arabia to increase oil production. Unsuccessfully, the American president told reporters that he expects news next month, when the OPEC+ countries are expected to meet.
#Biden #failed #fulfill #goals #Middle #East