Biden to visit ‘pariah’ Saudi Arabia, Israel and West Bank
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden confirmed on Tuesday that he will visit Saudi Arabia next month for talks with its leaders, a dramatic change in his stance on the kingdom that he pledged to make a “pariah” as a Democratic candidate for the White House.
With the visit at the tail end of a July 13-16 Middle East trip that includes stops in Israel and the West Bank, Biden is edging off his adversarial stance against on the Saudis’ human rights record. He’s looking to reset the relationship at a time when the U.S. could use help from the oil-rich kingdom to alleviate soaring pump prices at home and around the globe.
The stop in Saudi Arabia will include talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the kingdom, according to White House and Saudi officials. U.S. intelligence officials have determined the prince likely ordered the 2018 killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden on Tuesday bristled when asked about his upcoming visit to Jeddah and noted that his team had laid out in a statement “everything I’m doing in the Middle East.”
Human rights advocates and some Democratic allies cautioned Biden, saying a visit to the kingdom without first getting human rights commitments would send a message to Saudi leaders that there are no consequences for egregious rights violations. The Saudis have been accused of using mass arrests, executions and violence to squelch dissent.
But amid skyrocketing gas prices, growing worries about Iran’s nuclear program and perpetual concern that China is expanding its global footprint, Biden and his national security team have determined that freezing out the Saudis, particularly the crown prince, is not in the U.S. interest.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, told CNN that Biden “has a tough job dealing with gasoline prices and trying to find ways to find new sources and supplies to bring down inflation in the energy sector.”
But Durbin said he had “mixed feelings” about the visit, calling the Saudi’s human rights record “an outrage.”
The Senate’s No. 2 Republican leader accused Biden of paying too little attention to American energy.
John Thune of South Dakota said, “It just seems having to go hat in hand to the Saudis to try and get them to increase energy production because we won’t do it here, I think it’s unfortunate that an American president is put in that position.”
The Saudi Embassy in Washington described the visit as coming at the king’s invitation “to strengthen the historical bilateral relations and the distinguished strategic partnership between” the two countries.
The White House announced the trip after Saudi Arabia this month helped nudge OPEC+ to ramp up oil production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, and the kingdom agreed to extend a United Nations-mediated ceasefire in its seven-year war with Yemen.
Hala al-Dosari, a prominent rights advocate in Saudi Arabia now living and teaching in the United States, said Biden’s decision to meet with the crown prince is “a betrayal.” She also raised concerns that Biden’s visit to Israel glosses over last month’s fatal shooting of prominent American Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh in the West Bank. Independent investigations concluded Israeli fire likely killed the veteran journalist. Israel has said it would investigate.
Al-Dosari accused the administration of “prioritizing immediate interests over long-term goals of supporting democratic transitions” in Arab countries and “the immediate interests of securing more oil, and support for Israel.”
Biden’s first stop will be in Israel for a long-planned visit with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem. He will then meet with Palestinian Authority leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank.
The trip to Israel comes at a fraught time for Bennett’s fragile coalition, as he tries to avert another election and the potential return to power of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, will be looking for progress on reopening the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem. It served Palestinians before the Trump administration shut it in 2018 and folded its work into the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem as part of the controversial recognition of that city as the capital of Israel.