Joe Biden’s visit leaves people frustrated

TheThe main objective of US President Joe Biden’s tour of the Middle East was to reaffirm his country’s commitment to the region in which it continued to accumulate disappointments. At the end of this visit, one thing is clear: I just left people disappointed.

The Israelis only regretted his predecessor, Donald Trump, who brought US diplomacy in line as never before with the obstinate positions of the Jewish state. The Palestinians lamented the absence of strong gestures that would have translated Washington’s stated desire to once again become the “honest broker” of an outdated peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. There has been no shortage of opportunities, however, from the reopening of the US Consulate in East Jerusalem that was once intended for the Palestinians to a true tribute to Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was likely killed by Israeli fire in May.

The most sensitive stage for Joe Biden was planned in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where it was the scene of a meeting with the crown prince and the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman. The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate had promised to remove him for his alleged involvement in the assassination of dissident Jamal Khashoggi in horrific circumstances.

The president of the United States succumbed to this encounter, hoping that his confrontation would be offset by increased Saudi oil production. Lower gasoline prices have already become a necessity a few months before the midterm elections that could turn out to be a defeat for his camp.

negation

The “hand grip”, this taut salute the president exchanged with the rehabilitated former outcast, a literalist of a particularly authoritarian modernization of the kingdom, was the source of other disappointments. It is particularly costly for Joe Biden, yet it has been followed by vague Saudi promises. It hardly be otherwise. Everyone knows from Canosa that this type of denial generally fails to restore confidence after a crisis.

There is no doubt that beyond diplomatic quarantine the crown prince has a deep distrust of the Democratic presidency. And Joe Biden apparently incensed all those who could have been persuaded of his primary desire to place the defense of American democratic values ​​at the center of his foreign policy.

In his defense, Joe Biden inherited by reaching the White House a heavy Middle Eastern responsibility. The last Democratic president, Barack Obama, paved the way, in 2013, for a major re-engagement of Russia in the region by rejecting any intervention in Syria at a time when Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship was reluctant.

His Republican successor, Donald Trump, has further undermined American interests by withdrawing his country from the 2015 international agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program. On the contrary, its policy of maximum pressure aimed at bringing the Iranian regime to its knees has prompted the latter to resume its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and refuse to return to the previous status quo.

Joe Biden found himself responsible for these strategic errors. By adding his own position, he has complicated the American position a little more in a region where a confrontation is also taking place between the United States and the revisionist Russian and Chinese forces.