“SLEEPING TO THE EAST”

Could Biden's hurried trip to the Middle East be the last chance for the US to regain lost influence?

 

By Ali Al-Najafi

As Ukrainian forces withdraw in disorder from all fronts and NATO weapons continue to flow uncontrollably into the great black hole that Ukraine has become, US President Joe Biden made a meteoric visit to the Middle East in a desperate search for win back the hearts of the Arabs and at the same time, reinforce their commitment to the illegalities and arbitrariness of the state of Israel.

To try to find a solution to the terrible problem of lack of energy and the high costs of the energy available in the market, a summit was held in the Saudi city of Jeddah, the same one where Kuwaiti and Iraqi representatives met 31 years ago. for the dispute over the “Ar Rumaylah” oil fields that (through CIA intrigue) was used by Washington to make Saddam Hussein fall into the trap that the planned landing on the Arabian Peninsula would give him.

For the more pragmatic, Biden's words are so hollow and without credibility that they only lasted as long as his visit. Even with whom Washington has had the best relationship in the region, it has encountered notable skepticism, and this is not due to mere whims. The double standards and the constant faults have created suspicion in the monarchist elites. Even the Saudis do not forget how the Americans allowed the “Hutie” resistance Drones (some of them provided by Israeli intelligence) to quietly pass through the airspace controlled by AWACS radars and hit their oil terminals and airports. Where? were the commitments for security? Riyadh's response was to knock on the doors of Pekin and Moscow. In this way, several agreements were established through which (and in particular China) came to take an important place in strategic sectors of the peninsula. Obviously, this unleashed anger in Washington and this meant a break in relations that was impossible to solve.

But the need has the face of a heretic and in this case the face is that of Biden who begged the Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman to lower the prices of a barrel of crude oil to give air to the hanged US economy. But who put the rope around the neck of the US economy and its Western partners?

Biden was aware that he was going on an impossible mission. Reestablish bonds of trust with someone who has lost trust in you and shows it to you, it is doubtful to believe that it has been reestablished by a whirlwind trip.

It seems that the long-time democrat and defender of human rights Biden forgot the central role that the crown prince had in the execution of the aberrant crime against the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 inside a diplomatic mission in Türkiye. If someone is going to believe that “Joe” reprimanded the Riyadh butcher for that fact, you are guilty of being naive. The one who did not forget Biden and the Democratic electoral propaganda was Salman himself, who for a long time has been strengthening relations with Russia (especially with the arms industry) and even, in the current framework of global crisis, refrained from condemning the actions of Moscow in Ukraine.

Similar apathy received from the other Arab governments. Even Iraq, brazenly managed by a CIA agent like Mustafa Al Kadhimi and successor in the collaborationist administrations established since 2003, showed great skepticism towards the words of the US president. Perhaps what really mattered to all these Washington partners was Biden's promise that “the United States will not go anywhere” with which all these corrupt politicians keep the hope of perpetuity and thus they can continue to enjoy impunity in his robbery against his own people.

One point in Biden's meteoric travel agenda was trying to get Israel into the Arab regional structure, something that, despite the connections that already exist between several members of the petro-monarchies and the validity of a discussed “Abrahamic Agreement” signed between Israel and the UAE, the situation of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli apartheid regime that continues to usurp Arab territories remains impossible for the common Arab population base to accept.

This is something that is often not said in the analyses, but the perception and belief of the public opinion of ordinary Arab citizens do not share the decisions of their governments at all. One of these decisions is this rapprochement with a racist and criminal state that only survives because of the financial, political and military support of the West (USA and EU).

None of them missed the ulterior motives that the visitor had. Biden sought to align all those involved in sanctioning Iran for its nuclear program. But this is a policy that seeks to directly benefit Israel, something that not everyone is very happy to accept.

There is no unified vision on this situation. While Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the US have relations with Israel, the Sultanate of Oman and Qatar are not convinced of that relationship and that is why they are not conditioned not to engage with Iran as Biden suggested. In this regard, we must not forget the role of Doha as the venue for the talks between the North American and Iranian representatives to resume the agreement on the nuclear issue.

As things are seen, the US and its British partners can offer these incredulous partners few guarantees, even the same Arabs over and over again used by the Anglo-Saxons to execute their plans today could question what kind of guarantees can an empire in decline give us? with partners as or more decadent?