Joe Biden begins his journey to the Middle East, with his eyes on Saudi Arabia

The president of the United States, Joe BidenHe will begin his Middle East trip on Tuesday with a mission to strengthen Israel’s ties with the Arab world, especially Saudi Arabia, and amid high expectations for his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

This is Biden’s first trip to the Middle East, who will leave for Israel on Tuesday evening after meeting his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in Washington. After being in Israel on Wednesday and Thursday, He will travel to the West Bank on Friday and leave the same day for Saudi Arabia.

Biden will be the first US president to fly from Israel to Saudi Arabia, in a gesture reflecting the rapprochement of recent years between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors. His predecessor Donald Trump (2017-2021) had to make the trip in reverse.

Increase collaboration between Israel and the Arab world

The White House has made it clear that the main goal is to investigate The integration of Israel into the Middle East exploiting the momentum of the “Abrahamic Agreements”, orchestrated by Trump and with which Israel normalized relations with United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

Israel and Saudi Arabia are not expected to announce the establishment of diplomatic relations during Biden’s trip, but they are. some steps could be taken What the opening of Saudi airspace to Israeli flights thus they can reduce the flight time to China, India or Thailand.

Furthermore, the US could intercede in the transfer from Egypt to Saudi Arabia of two strategic islands in the Red Sea with the aim of guaranteeing Israel’s right to free navigation, explained an American source familiar with regional negotiations.

According to that source, the trip could also lay the groundwork for increased military cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Israel with the mediation of the Central Command (Centcom) of the US Armed Forces, focused on the Middle East and which since last year has included Israel in its coverage area.

Specifically, several Arab nations are in talks with Israel on the possibility of coordinating their anti-missile defense systems. to deal with Iran.

Some countries are particularly interested in a new laser system developed by Israel to intercept missiles that Israeli officials plan to show Biden during his trip in an effort to garner financial support for the project from Washington.

Biden’s meeting with Bin Salman

However, despite the White House’s efforts to focus on Israel, much of the attention will focus on Biden’s bilateral meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohamed bin Salman, at whom the CIA itself makes responsible of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The meeting generated an avalanche of criticism by human rights organizations and congressional lawmakers, including members of Biden’s party.

Faced with criticism, Biden posted this weekend a column in the Washington Post where he assured that he had achieved the goal that had been set at the beginning of his mandate: “redirect” but don’t break ties with a nation that has been a strategic partner of Washington for 80 years.

Saudi Arabia too leads the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and just at the end of June reached an agreement with another group of oil producing countries led by Russia to increase production in July and August, which could lower the cost of crude oil.

With gasoline prices skyrocketing in the United States and inflation at highs not seen in 40 years, Biden has already announced that he will ask Gulf countries to increase production.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be relegated to the background. In his year and a half in office, Biden has resumed relations with the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), which broke with Trump, and resumed aid to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

However, he has given no sign of wanting to backtrack from his predecessor’s decision to declare Jerusalem the Israeli capital.

Yes, he has promised to reopen the consulate for Palestinian affairs in Jerusalem that Trump closed in 2019, but so far there has been no progress and that has spawned a little skepticism among the Palestinians.

The unimportance of the Palestinian question contrasts with visits by other US presidents in previous decades, when conflict-related issues were central.

Now they seem to be less and less of a priority in a context in which the United States has left the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan behind and, hand in hand with Biden, prefers to focus on its competition with the great powers: China in Asia and Russia in Europe.

The author is an EFE journalist

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