This is one of the main lessons of this highly criticized visit to the Gulf countries. US President Joe Biden “solemnly” invited the new head of state of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, to visit the United States on Saturday, after a period marked by disagreements between the two partners.
Among the world’s top oil exporters, this Gulf country has long been close to the United States, but relations have been strained recently, amid the war in Ukraine, the oil crisis and fears of a US pullout. from the Middle East.
“The challenges we face today make it even more important that we spend time together,” Joe Biden said during a bilateral meeting with Mohammed bin Zayed in Jeddah, western Israel, Saudi Arabia, where he is concluding his first Middle East tour. .
“I want to solemnly invite you to the United States,” said the US president, specifying that he wanted to receive his Washington counterpart in the Oval Office “before the end of this year.”
relations cooled
Relations between Washington and Abu Dhabi have been frosty in recent months, with the Americans accused by some observers of losing interest in the Middle East in favor of Asia.
But addressing several Arab leaders meeting in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, Joe Biden promised that the United States “will not turn its back” on the Middle East, leaving “a vacuum that could be filled by China, Russia or Iran.”
The US administration is on his side, angered by the refusal of the Gulf countries to increase oil production to calm the rise in prices on world markets due to the war in Ukraine waged since February by Russia.
The United Arab Emirates, then chair of the UN Security Council, initially refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Furthermore, the United Arab Emirates, like Saudi Arabia, has long hoped for more support from the United States in its war against the Houthis in Yemen, these rebels are supported by Iran. A truce is currently in force.
At the beginning of March, the Emirates ambassador to the United States, Youssef Al Otaïba, had estimated that the relationship between Washington and Abu Dhabi was “on trial” while insisting on the desire to reactivate it in the long term.
Source: BFM TV
