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JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Wrapping up a four-day trip to the Middle East, President Biden laid out his vision for the region’s future Saturday, a framework he hopes will strengthen American values and investment in that part of the world — and blunt the influence of Russia and China.
The day, packed with meetings with leaders of Iraq, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and other regional powers, was in part an attempt to change the narrative dominated by Biden’s interactions with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto leader who has been accused of violating Human rights.
“The United States has a clear view of the challenges in the Middle East and where we have the greatest capacity to help achieve positive outcomes,” Biden said during his latest remarks to a coalition of leaders from the Gulf states and some neighbors. “We are not going to walk away and let the vacuum be filled by China, Russia or Iran.”
Biden says he confronted the Saudis directly against Khashoggi
In more than four hours of meetings, Biden tried to cover a lot of ground: extending the truce in Yemen; increasing regional food security; dealing with waves of Russian invasion of Ukraine on energy markets; implementation of stronger human rights protection in the region; and dealing with the threat of Iran, which is feared to be seeking nuclear weapons.
To that end, Biden announced $1 billion in food security aid for the Middle East and North Africa, regions facing acute famine in part because of Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest wheat exporters before the war. Advisers said the president stressed to his colleagues that he hoped their countries would be partners for decades and focused talks on diplomacy and deterrence to avoid future conflicts, noting that he was the first US president to visit the Middle East. east since September 11, 2001, without US troops engaging in a major ground war in the region.
As gas prices have risen sharply in recent months, Biden has also faced enormous domestic political pressure to do something to lower pump prices — and aides hoped the president’s trip would lead to Saudi leaders boosting production. and will reduce oil costs.
However, there were no such announcements during the trip, although Biden said on Friday that “based on our discussions today, I expect to see further steps in the coming weeks.”
Getting the diverse group of Middle Eastern leaders to buy into his plan is vital to the administration. If the United States doesn’t try to exert influence, Biden and his aides have repeatedly said, China and Russia will step in — and shape the region’s future.
“The bottom line is: this trip is about repositioning America in this region for the future,” Biden said in a speech late Friday.
Biden’s trip comes as he limps home. His approval ratings have plummeted, his domestic agenda remains unsettled, and members of his own party are questioning whether he should seek a second term at all. Struggles at home also raise questions about whether he will be able to deliver on any of his promises in the region.
For weeks, Biden has unsuccessfully stressed that Saturday’s meetings should not be overshadowed by his meeting with Mohammed, who is accused of being behind the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Yet the trip to Saudi Arabia has so far been marked by a figurative chess match and a literal spat between the two leaders. US intelligence officials say Mohammed orchestrated Khashoggi’s assassination, and Biden has said the Saudi government should be made a pariah. But Mohammed leads an oil-rich country that the administration sees as vital to stabilizing the region and lowering gas prices, so Biden reluctantly agreed to meet with him.
Biden says he confronted the Saudis directly against Khashoggi
In all, he spent three hours with the crown prince, participating in a bilateral meeting and shaking hands with numerous Saudi officials. At the end of the evening, Biden said he had taken a hard line on human rights despite the apparent act of kindness. Saudi officials later described an exchange that was far less confrontational than the president described.
The punch, which was filmed by Saudi Arabia’s state media and quickly circulated around the world, became a powerful symbol and lightning rod for Biden. The president, who feared the face-to-face meeting, was accused of giving legitimacy to the Saudi government, which has a long record of human rights abuses.
In a meeting with reporters on Friday night, Adel al-Jubeir, a Saudi diplomat and former foreign minister, said the crown prince had assured Biden that Saudi Arabia had conducted its own investigation into Khashoggi’s killing and that the perpetrators had been arrested.
“We have conducted an investigation. People were put on trial. They were convicted, went on appeal. The decision went to the Supreme Court and was upheld. And we have people paying the price in prison. This is what every civilized country does,” he said. “We took responsibility for this as a country.”
Biden’s interactions with Muhammad on Sunday were more abbreviated. Before heading to a meeting of the full coalition, the leaders posed for a group photo, a tradition at multilateral meetings. Mohammed, the host of the day’s events, accompanied Biden, and after the photo, the crown prince led Biden into the meeting room, chatting as they walked a few feet in front of the other leaders.
Yet Biden’s meetings with Muhammad were not the only ones overshadowed by human rights concerns.
Ahead of the president’s meeting with the leader of the United Arab Emirates, the country arrested Asim Ghafoor, an American citizen who previously served as Khashoggi’s lawyer.
Ghafoor is a board member of Democracy for the Arab World Now, which was founded by Khashoggi, and issued a statement saying the arrest was based on “fabricated” allegations.
“We are outraged by the unjustified detention of our board member and are extremely concerned for his health and physical safety given the well-documented record of ill-treatment in the UAE, including torture and inhumane treatment,” Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN, said in a statement. statement on Friday.
“We urge the Biden administration to secure the release of an arbitrarily detained US attorney before agreeing to meet with the UAE leader [Mohammed bin Zayed] in Jeddah tomorrow,” he added.
DAWN said Ghafoor was arrested in connection with a money laundering case, while calling his case “politically motivated”. The Abu Dhabi government’s media office did not immediately respond to questions about the nature of the allegations against Ghafoor.
A State Department official said the United States was aware of Ghafoor’s arrest and that consular officials had visited him. A senior administration official said Biden was also aware of the arrest, but declined to say whether the president raised the issue at his meeting on Saturday.
But during their meeting, Biden did invite the UAE leader to visit the United States.
“The challenges you face today only make it a hell of a lot more important that we spend time together,” Biden said.
Sarah Daduch in Beirut contributed to this report.
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