JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 16 (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden will discuss regional missile and defense capabilities on Saturday when he meets with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia, where he will try to integrate Israel as part of a new axis driven largely by shared concerns about Iran, said a senior administration official.
“We believe it is of great value to include as many of the capabilities of this region as possible, and certainly Israel has significant air defense and missile capabilities, as needed. But we are having these discussions bilaterally with these nations,” he said. responsible for administration. he told reporters.
Biden, on his first trip to the Middle East as president, has focused on the planned summit with six Gulf states and Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, while downplaying the meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman . This meeting has generated criticism in the United States about human rights abuses.
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Biden had promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” on the world stage for the 2018 assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, but ultimately decided that American interests dictated a recalibration, not a rupture, in relations with the world’s leading oil and Arab exporter. power plant.
The US leader said he had raised the assassination of Khashoggi at the top of his meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince on Friday and that silence on the human rights issue is “incompatible with who we are and who I am”. Read more
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television, citing a Saudi official, said the Crown Prince told Biden that if the United States only dealt with countries that share its values 100%, they would only have NATO countries with whom to work.
Biden needs the help of OPEC giant Saudi Arabia at a time of high crude oil prices and other problems related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and while encouraging efforts to end the war in Yemen, where there is a temporary truce. Washington also wants to curb Iran’s dominance in the region and China’s global influence.
The administration official said the United States hopes to see an increase in OPEC production in the coming weeks. Biden is expected to pressure other Gulf producers to pump more oil. The OPEC + alliance, which includes Russia, will meet on August 3.
The U.S. president, who began his trip to the region with a visit to Israel, will hold bilateral talks with leaders from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq before participating in the broader summit where he will “clearly state “His vision and strategy for U.S. engagement in the Middle East,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Friday.
“I intended to make sure there was no gap in the Middle East for China and Russia to fill,” Sullivan said.
Another senior government official said Biden would announce that the United States has committed $ 1 billion in new short- and long-term food security assistance to the Middle East and North Africa, and that the Gulf states would commit $ 3 billion over the next two years in projects that align. with US partnerships in global infrastructure and investment.
The Gulf states, which have refused to side with the West against Russia in the Ukraine conflict, are in turn seeking a concrete commitment from the United States to the strategic ties that have been strained by the perceived U.S. disengagement from the region.
IRAN’S CONCERNS
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have been frustrated by US conditions on arms sales and have been excluded from indirect talks between the United States and Iran aimed at reviving a 2015 nuclear pact they deem flawed by not address regional concerns about Tehran’s missile program and behavior.
“The most important demand of the Saudi leadership and other Gulf leaders – and of the Arabs in general – is the clarity of U.S. policy and its direction toward the region,” said Abdulaziz Sager, president of the Golf Research Center based in Riyadh.
Israel, which shares its concerns about Iran, encouraged Biden’s trip to the kingdom, hoping it would foster warming between Saudi Arabia and Israel as part of a broader Arab rapprochement after the UAE. United Arabs and Bahrain forged ties with Israel in U.S.-negotiated pacts they received. The blessings of Riyadh.
As a sign of progress in what Biden described as an innovative process, Saudi Arabia said Friday it would open its airspace to all airlines, paving the way for more flights to and from Israel.
Washington and Riyadh also announced the withdrawal of the U.S. and other peacekeepers from Tiran, an island between Saudi Arabia and Egypt in a strategic position leading to the Israeli port of Eilat. The troops have been stationed as part of the agreements reached in 1978 and which led to a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt.
A plan to connect air defense systems could be a difficult sale for Arab states that have no ties to Israel and are reluctant to join an alliance seen as opposed to Iran, which has built a strong network of representatives. in the region, including Iraq. Lebanon and Yemen.
Anwar Gargash, a senior Emirati official, said on Friday that the idea of the so-called NATO in the Middle East was difficult and that bilateral cooperation was faster and more effective. Read more
The UAE, he said, would not support a confrontational approach: “We are open to cooperation, but not to cooperation aimed at any other country in the region and I specifically mention Iran.”
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Additional report by Maha El Dahan in Jeddah and John Irish in Paris Written by Ghaida Ghantous and Michael Georgy Edited by Daniel Wallis and Frances Kerry
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