Joe Biden told Middle East leaders on Saturday that the United States has invested in the region and is not about to cede influence to Russia, China and Iran, which have built a presence in the region in recent years. .
“We will not walk away and leave a gap to fill China, Russia or Iran. And we will seek to build that moment with active, early American leadership,” the U.S. president said. “The United States is not going anywhere.”
Biden, who was on his first tour of the region, partly with the aim of convincing Gulf states to pump more oil, was speaking at a summit in the Saudi city of Jeddah, where the leaders of the Judah had met. Gulf states, Egypt and Jordan.
His administration has already disagreed with key Middle Eastern allies such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on a number of issues, including human rights. Some Arab states, including the Gulf state, where countries rely heavily on U.S. security aid, have worried about what they see as a U.S. disengagement from the region, which in turn had brought them closer. in Russia and China.
In particular, relations between Washington and Riyadh deteriorated after Biden promised to turn the country into an outcast during his presidential campaign, citing the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. The CIA concluded that the Saudi Crown Prince and the day-to-day ruler Mohammed bin Salman ordered the operation, which the prince denies.
Biden met the Crown Prince for the first time on Friday. After the meeting, he said he had raised Khashoggi’s case with the prince and hoped that Saudi Arabia would increase oil production in the coming weeks.
A Saudi official told reporters that the country would increase production if there was demand in the market.
Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, has been pushing the United States for more military aid to counter Iran’s power in the region and to defend itself from Houthis rebels in Yemen who have attacked facilities. in the two Gulf countries. It was not immediately clear whether Biden’s visit would lead to increased military support and aid to Saudi Arabia.
“As we continue to work closely with many of you to counter the threats raised[in]. . . the region for Iran, we are also pursuing diplomacy to return the limitations to Iran’s nuclear program. But whatever happens, the United States is committed to ensuring that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, ”Biden said.
On the sidelines, the president met with the leaders of Egypt, Iraq and the president of the United Arab Emirates, Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed, whom he invited to Washington.
Biden, who visited Israel and the Palestinian territories before arriving in Saudi Arabia, achieved a victory in foreign policy during the trip, and Saudi Arabia announced that it would open its skies to all overflights to and from of Israel after US-negotiated ties. Israel accepted the transfer of the multinational peacekeeping forces from two Red Sea islands that Egypt had ceded to Saudi Arabia in 2017.
U.S. officials said they hoped to establish full diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel would take years and made it clear before the trip that they did not expect significant progress.
The agreements negotiated between Saudi Arabia and Israel during the trip did not comply with the US-negotiated peace agreements between Israel and four Arab countries in 2020. Saudi Arabia has said it will normalize ties with Israel only when it resolves its conflict. with Israel. the Palestinians.