“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?