President Joe Biden gets things backwards in the Middle East
Last week, President Biden traveled to the Middle East, stopping first in Israel before traveling to Saudi Arabia. While the trip was chiefly about mitigating the effects of the ongoing oil and energy crisis, President Biden justified his trip by arguing his visit would help the Middle East in “coming together through diplomacy and cooperation — rather than coming apart through conflict.”
President Biden’s perception of the Middle East, and what United States policy should be in the region, rests on the assumption that the Middle East is more stable, cooperative and secure when the U.S. is more involved. However, this reasoning is backwards. The Middle East does not need America to drive regional cooperation and has actually fared considerably well without it.
About 2,750 American troops are currently deployed to Saudi Arabia, to “provide air and missile defense capabilities and support the operation of United States military aircraft.” Thus, any confrontation or escalation between Saudi Arabia and Iran risks putting American lives needlessly at risk and entangling the United States in peripheral regional conflicts. If Biden’s rationale is protecting American lives and security, pulling U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia and its neighbors is paramount.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. maintained a rigid stance against Iran, with tensions between the U.S. and Iran flaring on more than one occasion: the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, the drone attack in the Strait of Hormuz, the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, etc. After taking office, the Biden administration swore to break from such an antagonistic position, reenter the JCPOA, and shift towards putting out fires, instead of stoking their flames.
However, the rhetoric emerging immediately following Biden’s trip is dangerously rem
iniscent of these Trumpera policies. In the Jerusalem U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Joint Declaration, the United States committed “never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” vowing “to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome.” Later, in an interview, President Biden expanded on this commitment, saying the U.S. saw military force as a “last resort” option to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon — an inflammatory and dangerous assertion. In the same interview, Biden was asked if he was willing to keep the IRGC’s FTO designation “even if that means that it kills the deal,” to which Biden responded, “yes.”
Hard-lining against Iran, instead of pursuing diplomacy, is counterproductive and against U.S. interests. While it is true that the U.S. does not need the JCPOA to succeed in order to safely deter Iran, the U.S. should remain wary of policies and rhetoric that encourage either costly conflict with or further isolation of Iran. The Middle East of today is ready to move on from regional conflicts and has begun preparing for U.S. disengagement, shifting towards self-sufficiency.
Cooperation and negotiations that had once been assumed unthinkable have become increasingly common in the region, both regarding the Israeli-Arab dialogue, as well as negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Beginning in 2020, after Former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met, Saudi Arabia began considering normalization with Israel, calling Israel “a potential ally” in March 2022. Also, Iraq, once defined solely by conflict and domestic strife, has taken on a leading role in regional negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Despite Iran suspending the talks in March 2022, by April 2022, delegates met again for a fifth round of talks in Baghdad.
In the case of the war in Yemen, after America appeared to revoke its perpetual support for the
Saudi-led coalition, significant progress has been made toward a peaceful resolution. Under the Trump Administration, from 2016 to 2020, Saudi Arabia was the single largest recipient of U.S. arms exports, accounting for 24% of all U.S. arms sales during that period. During this time, Saudiled coalition attacks in Yemen were decimating and disproportionate to their counterparts, the Houthis, an Iranian proxy.
Upon taking office, the Biden administration planned to “suspend the sale of many offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia” but, it would “allow the sale of other material that can be construed to have a defensive purpose.” Biden then approved a $650 million sale of 280 air-to-air missiles for Saudi Arabia in November 2021, and by December, when the sale withstood Senate objections, Riyadh claimed that its arsenal of missile defense had fallen dangerously low, risking its ability to adequately defend itself from crossborder attacks.
While receiving a consistent flow of U.S. support, the Saudi coalition lacked incentive to cease their involvement, thus prolonging the war and continuing the devastating conflict. However, after losing this flow of aid over the past year, Riyadh, as well as the Houthis, have shown unprecedented willingness to negotiate, as evidenced by an ongoing ceasefire for the past 14 weeks. To reengage with Saudi Arabia, and offer weapons sales, especially offensive weapons, would be a reversal of necessary progress.
The U.S. wants a cooperative and less divided Middle East. However, the future for the Middle East, outlined by Biden’s trip, consists of hard-lining and doubling-down on obstinance instead of diplomacy. This position will only make potential inter-regional cooperation harder. The best thing the U.S. can do for the Middle East is give them the autonomy to cooperate, not muddy the water by forcing an unnecessary American hand in the pot when our over-involvement serves neither U.S. security nor Middle Eastern stability.