Joe Biden’s visit to the Middle East, designed to show US engagement in the region, is instead highlighting Washington’s retreat from it.
The key stop on the US president’s itinerary is Saudi Arabia, where Biden will meet Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, whom he pledged before his election to make a “pariah”. That was Biden’s response to the gruesome killing of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi in an operation that US intelligence believes was ordered by the crown prince. But circumstances have changed. The cost of living crisis has hit the American public hard, and Biden is under pressure to stabilise global oil supplies as petrol pump prices continue to rise at home just months out from midterm elections. He also wishes to keep Riyadh from aligning itself too closely with Russia and China at a time when Washington sees the isolation of those countries as strategic priorities. The Biden administration is reportedly considering resuming sales of offensive weapons to the Saudis. Taken together, the unmistakable message is that economic and political interests come before human rights or moral judgment.
Expectations for Biden’s Middle East policy were low at the outset. Two years in, very little has been achieved there by a president whose focus has been on domestic policy, repairing western alliances damaged by the Trump presidency and dealing with the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Talks aimed at restoring the Iran nuclear deal continue without any certainty of success. In Israel, the first leg of Biden’s tour, he made standard-issue pledges of American commitment to a Palestinian state but then added, “even though I know it’s not in the near-term.” He came with no new idea, no pretence at fresh initiative and shows no sign of preparedness to advocate for Palestinian civil rights.
In some areas, US foreign policy has changed dramatically since Biden succeeded Donald Trump. In the Middle East, changes of style and tone mask a policy position which in broad terms has remained the same.