“The president hopes to set out his affirmative vision for the United States’ commitment to the region in the coming months and years,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement announcing the visit. . “The President is grateful for King Salman’s leadership and invitation. He looks forward to this important visit to Saudi Arabia, which has been a strategic partner of the United States for nearly eight decades.”
Planning for next month’s trip has been underway for months, as U.S. officials consulted with their Saudi and Israeli counterparts about the outlines of a visit. Originally scheduled for the end of June, the trip was postponed for two weeks because it did not coincide with a scheduled visit to Europe for the G7 and NATO summits. The White House had refused to confirm that a trip would be made, although it said they were planning to do so.
“We are now in a place where we believe that this has come together in a very constructive way for all involved and the president is looking forward to it,” a senior administration official told reporters Monday evening. .
In Israel, Biden plans to meet with the country’s leadership, although current Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has warned that his fragile governing coalition could be on the verge of collapse. Biden will also look at the defensive systems provided by the United States and meet with athletes visiting an international Jewish sporting event. He will also meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, likely in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, to discuss prospects for restarting peace talks.
Air Force One will fly directly from Israel to Jeddah, a symptom of the warming of relations in a region where direct travel bans were once an extension of deep enmity between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In Jeddah, he will take part in a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, made up of the region’s monarchies, plus Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.
That the meetings take place in Jeddah, not in the capital, Riyadh, could be seen as a symbolic reduction of an official “state visit.” The last president of the United States to visit Jeddah, the second largest city and commercial center in the kingdom, was President George HW Bush in 1990.
However, according to a senior government official, Biden is expected to “see” the powerful Mohammed bin Salman as part of his commitment to Saudi leaders, although it was unclear whether this meant an individual meeting or something less formal.
The Saudi announcement of the visit was more explicit. “The Crown Prince and President Biden will hold official talks that will focus on various areas of bilateral co-operation,” the statement said.
Officials have said Biden approved the trip after some initial reluctance at the prospect of revoking his promise to make Saudi Arabia pay a price for his role in the gruesome 2018 assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Some of the president’s allies in Congress have criticized a trip, and in particular a meeting with Prince Mohammed, the day-to-day ruler of the kingdom.
Biden had hesitated to engage Prince Mohammed, determining at the beginning of his term that he would only speak to the Crown Prince’s father, King Salman, who is 86 years old and in poor health. The White House said in February 2021 that Biden was seeking to “recalibrate” relations with Riyadh, including by avoiding the Crown Prince, whom US intelligence agencies have blamed for Khashoggi’s assassination.
But the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, a global rise in energy prices and a growing nuclear threat from Iran have shaken the global calculation. And now Biden has determined that it is necessary to strengthen ties with a long-time American partner in the Middle East.
“In the end, the president strongly believes in this particular moment in the world, with interests at stake for the United States and the American people, visiting Saudi Arabia for a summit of leaders from across the Middle East. “It’s a way to talk face-to-face with those leaders, including the Saudis. As we move forward as partners, it’s the right thing to do at the right time, and it offers opportunities for significant gains,” he said.
High gas prices, which reached a national average of $ 5 per gallon over the weekend, have consumed the White House and become a major political responsibility for Biden. Although OPEC Plus announced plans this month to modestly increase production, the change may have only a limited effect on U.S. gas prices.
Speaking to reporters this weekend, Biden insisted that the trip was not tied to global energy prices, although the United States has been pushing the Saudi-led OPEC Plus group to increase oil production as the price of gas has skyrocketed.
“The Saudi commitments have nothing to do with energy,” he said. “It’s a bigger meeting that is taking place in Saudi Arabia. That’s why I’m going. And it has to do with national security for them, for the Israelis.”
The Biden administration, led by White House Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk, has been working with Israel and Saudi Arabia to negotiate economic and security agreements as the two countries work to thaw ties. Saudi Arabia does not officially recognize Israel and the nations do not have official diplomatic relations.
The agreements would allow commercial flights traveling from Israel to fly over Saudi airspace. A separate agreement could resolve an ongoing problem over two islands strategically located in the Red Sea, transferring them to Saudi control.
The United States has also been working with Saudi Arabia to spread a ceasefire in Yemen, where a war led by Saudi Arabia has been wreaking havoc for years. In a statement following the extension of the truce, Biden praised Riyadh’s “brave leadership”.
Even before it was formally announced, Biden’s trip has sparked scrutiny by some Democrats and human rights defenders.
“I have contradictory feelings about this, and if the president called me, I would say, ‘Mr. President, you can’t trust these people. Their standards are not ours, their values are not ours, “Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told CNN on Tuesday.
Khashoggi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, accused Biden of losing his moral compass when word of his journey arose.
“President Biden’s decision to meet with MBS is terribly annoying to me and supporters of freedom and justice everywhere,” he said in a statement to CNN last week.
Officials said human rights were a coherent facet of all of Biden’s diplomatic talks, including with Saudi Arabia.
“We keep many of these conversations behind closed doors,” said a senior government official.