Biden pushes effort to broker Israeli-Saudi agreement
Faces big hurdles in bid to realign Mideast politics
President Biden’s envoys are pushing ahead with their effort to realign Middle East politics by brokering the establishment of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel despite significant concessions demanded by the Saudi monarchy.
Biden sent National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan back to Saudi Arabia in recent days, his second trip there in less than three months, as US officials test the ground for an agreement bringing together two historic adversaries and fundamentally reshaping the region.
No breakthrough was announced, but the fact that Sullivan returned to the kingdom so soon after his last trip in May suggests that the Biden administration sees serious prospects for an accord. Among the hurdles has been Saudi Arabia’s insistence on a mutual security pact with the United States and development of a civilian nuclear program in which the country could enrich its own uranium, both nonstarters in the past.
A summary of the meeting in a White House statement gave little indication of how much progress was made during the visit. Sullivan traveled to Jeddah, the statement said, “to discuss bilateral and regional matters, including initiatives to advance a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous, and stable Middle East region interconnected with the world.”
But US officials who were in Jeddah on Thursday privately reported to colleagues that the engagements went well and expressed cautious optimism that progress could be made as diplomats on the ground continue talking.
The Biden administration has also sought to draw Saudi Arabia away from its collaboration with Russia on energy prices to increase pressure on Moscow as it wages war in Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that Saudi leaders will convene peace talks Aug. 5-6 involving representatives from Ukraine and dozens of other countries including India and Brazil, which like Saudi Arabia have not joined Western efforts to isolate Russia over its invasion. Russia, which has refused to negotiate, is not included in the meeting. The Journal said Sullivan was expected to participate, but the National Security Council would not comment Saturday.
A Saudi plan to host such a meeting highlights a cascade of complicated and sometimes clashing dynamics. Washington wants to enlist Riyadh against the Russians, prevent it from growing closer to China, bring it together with Israel, coordinate with it against Iran, persuade it to finally put an end to the war in next-door Yemen, and keep it from raising the price of gasoline at the pumps heading into an election year.
In a conversation last week with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Biden described a possible Saudi-Israeli deal with many moving parts, any of which could easily trip up such a complicated negotiation but would have far-reaching implications if they were realized.
Saudi demands for normalization with Israel have been expansive. Among other things, Saudi officials want a NATO-level alliance with the United States in which an attack on one is an attack on all, long a taboo among US policymakers who do not want to be committed to coming to the defense of a nondemocratic monarchy in case of war. And they want a civilian nuclear program despite longstanding opposition by Israel and the United States, which fear a nuclear arms race in the region.
Israeli officials who recently met with American counterparts were given the impression that while the first phase of the negotiations did not include any demand for significant Israeli concessions in their conflict with the Palestinians, it is now believed that a deal would require significant progress on the issue.
Israeli officials were told that King Salman, who has ceded much control to his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, intervened in the negotiations to insist any deal include a clear Israeli move toward the Palestinians, according to an Israeli defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.