Afrasiant - Sobhi Ghandour - Whoever reads an article by US President Joseph Biden in the "Washington Post" and his statements prior to his coming to the region is fully aware that he was addressing his Democratic Party and American public opinion to justify his visit to Saudi Arabia and his retraction of his negative position on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Because of what the CIA announced about his responsibility for the murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Among the justifications given by Biden is that his visit to the region is for the sake of supporting the Israeli ally and for peace in the region, and not for the issue of increasing Saudi oil exports. Of course, Biden's justifications are not really the goal of his meetings in Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia.
In order to understand the truth and nature of the first visit of the American president to the “Middle East” region, it is important to go back a little to the period of the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine, when Washington pressured European countries to line up with it to impose economic sanctions on Moscow and stop importing oil and gas from it, which requires securing other sources of energy that it needs.
Europe, where the “White House” at the time tried to contact the Saudi Crown Prince in order to increase the volume of oil exports, and it was said at the time that Mohammed bin Salman did not respond to the “White House” call, inviting the US President to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to discuss any matter he wanted.
After that, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Riyadh, which took place at the request of his “friend” the US President, did not result in the retreat of the Saudi position, which insisted on Biden’s presence in the Kingdom and his meeting there with the Crown Prince, a position that also called Prince Khalid bin Salman, brother of the Crown Prince. , to visit Washington despite the reservations he had with the Biden administration. All of this coincided with the American failure to weaken Russia economically and financially, and with the start of European allies’ discontent with the developments of the war in Ukraine, and the bad results of the rise in oil and gas prices, which contributed to an economic and social crisis in the countries of the world in general, including the United States, which is like a continent of "Fifty Countries" depends heavily on oil derivatives in most of its commercial activities, which led to economic inflation in it and a significant increase in the prices of goods that the American citizen consumes daily.
The White House also hoped that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear file would reach positive results so that Iranian oil exports would return to the global market, particularly Europe, and that this would, of course, contribute to a drop in the price of oil and gas, which would provide economic comfort to Western countries.
It seems that the Biden administration was on the verge of returning to the international agreement with Iran through the last round that took place in Doha, but this matter was postponed until after Biden's tour in the region so that there is now a slogan "the crisis with Iran" in justifying the visit to both Israel and Saudi Arabia. , especially after criticism of Biden increased from within his Democratic Party because of his retreat from his position on the Saudi crown prince.
Perhaps this explains the recent escalation of American political and media pressures on Iran, including the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency and then accusing Iran of arming Russia with drones, in addition to launching a wide media campaign on the issue of “Middle Eastern NATO” which Israel employed to emphasize the importance of normalization Arab with her.
I do not find any harmony at all between these contradictory positions that emerged from the Biden administration regarding Iran and what are the stated or implicit goals of the US President's tour.
The American and Israeli escalation against Iran (as happened during the Trump/Netanyahu era) cannot achieve stability, peace and the settlements that Biden talked about in his recent statements, so how about any security or military escalation if it occurs against Tehran?! What oil or gas can be exported from the region if Arab parties are involved with Israel in military actions against Iran?!
Therefore, I do not see that there are more cases of treaties and normalization from Israel, and of military and security partnerships and maneuvers that have already taken place for years between several Arab governments and the US Central Military Command, to which Israel joined last year.
Then are there common positions among the leaders of the nine Arab countries with whom Biden will meet in Jeddah regarding Iran, the Palestinian file and the issue of normalization with Israel?! In a nutshell, I see that the only real reason for Biden's visit to the region is the Saudi factor and its important role in increasing oil exports and reducing its prices internationally, which comforts the West economically, contributes to Russian energy alternatives to Europe, and financially harms the Russian economy.
This visit of the US President is by necessity, not by choice. The priorities of the Biden administration now are not the crises of the Middle East region, nor, of course, the Palestinian file.
The priority now is the current confrontation with Russia and the upcoming confrontation with China. As for Biden's visit to Israel, it is a foregone conclusion, as it is not possible for an American president to visit an Arab country and not visit Israel first. Biden, who boasted about his Zionism at Tel Aviv airport, in which the Israeli president reminded him of his first visit to Israel in 1973 when he was a member of the US Senate, in addition to Biden's affirmation of the "Jewishness" of the Israeli state! I do not understand how any Palestinian official would be satisfied to receive Biden, the “Zionist,” who did not back down from any important decision taken by Trump regarding the Palestinian issue, Jerusalem and settlements in the occupied territories, and his great encouragement of the process of Arab normalization with Israel, regardless of Palestinian rights. And instead of supporting the Palestinian people in their right to their independent state and liberating their land from occupation (as NATO does in Ukraine), Biden will ask Israel to give more work permits to Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to work in the development of the occupation state, and he will provide financial assistance to a Palestinian hospital in East Jerusalem that will inevitably treat those who are injured Shot by the Israeli occupation army!!.
The "visitor" Biden, and the "visitors" in Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia, all want to invest in the US president's tour to establish the "legitimacy" of their rule in their countries and towards their people despite the illegality of their issues based on their own interests