The Biden administration foreign policy is one in which domestic consideration such as connection to former President Trump or the Republican Party qualifies a certain country as “unfriendly” and therefore “an enemy of sorts.” It is the case of the Biden administration treatment of Saudi Arabia, and potentially of Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming coalition government.
The progressive wing of the Democratic Party has identified the Saudis and Netanyahu with the Republican Party. The oil interests of the senior Bush administration and its former Secretary of State James Baker were indeed heavily involved with Saudi Arabian oil. This, however, was a bygone era, when Saudi Arabia was one of the most repressive regimes on earth with brutal punishments such as cutting off limbs for theft, decapitation as punishment for infidelity, and the ill treatment of women in general. Slavery in Saudi Arabia was abolished as late as 1962.
The Saudis under King Salman, and Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS), have chartered a new and more moderate course. MBS, the effective ruler of the desert kingdom, has restrained the fanatical Wahhabi religious establishment, and is seeking to diversify and modernize the Saudi economy beyond oil. MBS has relaxed the restrictions on women and has been supportive of the Abraham Accords that established a warm peace between Israel and United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan.
To the Biden administration, the critical issue is whether the Saudis will be helpful against the Republican attacks on the administration’s energy policy in general and the inflationary pressures the progressives “green energy” has caused. The administration’s restrictions on domestic energy production caused skyrocketing cost at the fuel pump. Therefore, President Biden traveled to Riyadh last July “hat in hand,” to implore the Saudis to increase their oil production. Biden though, vilified MBS and held him responsible for the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, at the Saudis consulate in Istanbul. Biden expected Saudi compliance, which did not occur. OPEC voted to cut production by 2 million barrels per day. In October 2022, the White House asked the Saudis to delay the cuts in oil production voted by the OPEC cartel. The Biden administration then accused the Saudis of taking Russia’s side in Moscow’s war with Ukraine.
Saudi Arabia is clearly not a western democracy, and its human rights record is nothing to be proud of. America has nevertheless been protective of the Saudi regime ever since FDR met with Ibn Saud in 1945. America has relied, rightly or wrongly on the Saudis to fuel the western economies. While the Biden administration has accused Riyadh of collusion with Moscow, Biden’s former boss, Barrack Obama colluded with Russia in the Syrian civil war. Obama issued a “red line” to the Assad regime for using chemical weapons against Syrian civilians, and instead of punishing the Syrian dictator, he submitted to Putin’s interests. The Saudis and the Sunni-Muslim Gulf Arabs asked Obama to demand that Russia stop its bombing of Syrian hospitals and schools which targeted primarily Sunni-Muslims. He replied to them, “Talk to Vladimir Putin yourselves.”
From the progressive point of view led by Obama, the nuclear deal with Iran known as the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) was meant to realign American interests with those of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This had a discernable domestic angle, in that the Republicans maintained a strong relationship with the Sunni-Muslim Arab Gulf states and Israel, and through these relationships America projected its regional influence. Obama sought to change that paradigm, seeking closer ties with Iran, and distancing the US from the Arab Gulf states and Israel. This, despite Iran’s hostility toward the US, and posing an existential threat to Israel and to the Gulf states.
President Joe Biden depends on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in Congress to support his legislative agenda. As a result, he has mortgaged parts of his foreign policy to the whims and wishes of the progressives. Hence, his attitude toward the Saudis, the Gulf Arabs, and Israel (especially once Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition government begins to function). Biden, unlike Obama, does not share the latter’s hostility toward Israel. Iranian-born Valerie Jarret, who served as a senior advisor to President Obama, had lots to do with realigning US foreign policy away from the Sunni Arab Gulf states and Israel, and closer to Iran’s Islamic Republic.
When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, he not only pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, but he also switched back to the traditional American alliances in the Middle East. In fact, the Trump administration was able to forge the historic Abraham Accords, which bypassed the Palestinian veto power on Israeli-Arab peace, and among other things, the Trump administration helped create an anti-Iranian defense alliance that has brought together Israel, Bahrain, and the UAE.
In an interview with Jewish National Service (November 20, 2022), former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pointed out that “It’s been crazy to watch as the Biden administration tried to give the Iranians the money to continue their terror regime, to build their missile system and delivery capabilities, and not just the nuclear program, not just enrichment…That is not good for the Iranian people. It is terrible for the nation of Israel. I am glad to see that it has not happened. But not because of the administration but because the Ayatollah has chosen not to re-enter what would be a fantastic deal for them.”
Pompeo added, “The Biden administration’s policy of trying to counterbalance the Sunni Arabs is a mistake. What the US should be focused on is creating friendships between the Arab states and Israel, much like we did with the Abraham Accords, isolating the Iranian regime, they are the bad actors there.”
According to Pompeo, the US Justice Department taking on the case of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is a “political decision.” In fact, the case of Abu Akleh’s death investigation by Biden’s Justice Department is a direct result of pressure mounted by progressive Democrats in Congress on Biden to launch such an investigation. The progressive Democrats routinely criticize Israel and seek to have the Biden administration distance itself from Israel and adopt a more pro-Palestinian stance. Previously, the Biden administration also announced at the outset of its tenure the opening of the US consulate in Jerusalem. The Trump administration closed the consulate and merged it into the US embassy in Jerusalem. Similarly, the Biden administration encouraged by Obama, promised to restore the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Mission in Washington. All of this is part of the Biden-Obama strategy of realignment in the Middle East region, as well as aiming to reverse much of the work of the Trump Republican administration.
The Saudis did nothing absolutely nothing to extract the oil. They had no idea how to do it.
They had/have no idea how to process it into usable fuel.
They have no idea how to transport it.
They have no idea how to pump it into a vehicle.
None of the Arab states has any idea.
It was all done by us.
The only thing they can do is to be tribal.
We need to stop pandering to them.
Biden is interested in appeasement of Aidan at the expense of anyone who opposed the policies of Iran especially Israel snd the Saudis
Nevertheless, they own it and the US doesn’t. If the anti-Semitic Biden administration wants to pi$$ all over the Saudis, the Russians will be happy to move in. Biden is a fool and detrimental to world peace.
The American Left has a delusion that empowering Iran will make it a force for stability in the Middle East. This is insane lacking even a scintilla of factual support, and, like all delusions, does not correspond with reality. Iran is a great country but it is in the grip of anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Western religious fanatical Islamic regime. If the U.S. wants Iran to be a force for stability in the Middle East the best thing our current maladministration could do is everything possible to overthrow its ruling regime. But no.
The unanswered question is “WHY”? Why do democrats want to walk away from and thumb their nose at critical allies in the Mideast and cozy up to a country that hates the U.S.? Simple. Democrats also hate the U.S. and it’s constitution. Democrat domestic and foriegn policy can be summed up in a quote from Karl Marx:
“The meaning of peace is the removal of everything that stands in the way of socialism.”
JAMES BIDEN has made a tidy wad in the ME due to the ‘big guy’!
the biden story never changes. 50 years of gaming the law and sucking bribes.
Comer: ‘We’ve Never Had a Family That Has Influence-Pedaled to This Degree’
“So a lot of bad decisions this administration is making, maybe because they’re compromised because of the millions of dollars that they received through influence pedaling from our adversaries in China, Russia and the Middle East.
While obviously this sad excuse for an administration is doing all the wrong things in the Middle East, it is clear that the countries who signed the Abraham Accords are not in agreement with this strategy. They are saying quite openly that they wish to continue making progress with Israel, and that they trust Netanyahu and believe he wants peace. It’s all there in the Israeli news outlets. Biden and his hopeless bunch will not succeed in destroying the Abraham Accords, because the parties don’t want that to happen. It’s rather like Biden declaring he will open a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem. It won’t happen.
We know that FP is all about self-interest,first and foremost.For the sake of argument,without self-interest,our liberal democracies might not survive.For our western liberal democracies,and most countries with a European value based heritage. ethical considerations like Human Rights and our cherished,hard-fought-for freedoms are core to our ethos,world view,and aspirations.
The ME region,and the Zionist Israeli/Despotic Arab/Fundamentalist Iranian neighborhood is Human Rights challenged,as much as any region or neighborhood,anywhere.As to your “precious” Apartheid Zionist Israel,any country that exists by Occupation,Displacement,and Ethnic Cleansing,and at the expense of another innocent,vulnerable People,ie Palestinian Catholics,other Palestinian Christians,and Palestinian non-Jews,must be acknowledged as such by our true democracies,America included.Zionist Apartheid Israel,as well as Fundamentalist Saudi Arabia and Iran,are more alike than different.So long as we acknowledge these truths,our Foreign Policies will not be based on lies and denials,but rather the colder,harder,more practical practices of self-interest.We should,at the very least,and where and when possible,work towards mitigating our more distasteful foreign policies,and consider the impact,intentional or not,on the innocent,and vulnerable. Just sayin’.