U.S. President Joe Biden ended his first trip to the Middle East since taking office.
For the Biden administration, which has long excluded the Middle East from its strategic priorities, this first visit to the Middle East, which is long overdue than many predecessors, is purely forced by the situation.
In the face of the double whammy of high inflation and low support, although Biden's high-profile claim that the visit is aimed at opening a "new chapter" in the relationship between the United States and the Middle East, "finding oil" is considered his most realistic purpose.
Screenshot of the Guardian report
In addition, at a time when the risk of recession is increasing, the huge influence of the Jewish financial consortium in the United States has also made It impossible for Biden not to re-strengthen its alliance with the long-snubbed Israel to show the favor of the Jewish voters at home.
These two considerations connect the interlocking issues of Biden's visit:
In order to find oil, the severely cooling U.S.-Saudi relationship needs to be repaired; In order to appease Israel, it is necessary to match Saudi Arabia and repair it, and to talk about the "common enemy" of these two most important allies in the Middle East, Iran, and piece together a "Middle East version of NATO" to show the "leadership" of the United States in the Middle East and add some "diplomatic points" to the election.
Although the abacus is played well, how can it be that today's Middle East is no longer the Middle East that the United States could act arbitrarily in the past. Biden's Middle East debut, apart from touching a bunch of soft nails, is almost symbolic.
Auckland News: In recent years, the Middle East has been relatively calm. Biden's visit is anachronistic, unlikely to promote regional stability, but more likely to provoke trouble again.
"America is becoming increasingly untrustworthy"
From the first leg of Biden's trip, Israel, public opinion has generally noticed that the Trump-style Middle East policies that Biden once abandoned or shelved seem to be back.
Previously, Biden had deliberately downplayed the Abraham Agreement, which his predecessor Trump had pushed Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel. But this time, in order to let Israel "truly integrate into the Middle East", Biden did not hesitate to change his course and painstakingly wanted Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Gulf states, to join the "Israeli circle of friends".
This is widely seen as a division of Arab states and a betrayal of Palestine.
Turkey's Anadolu News Agency: The Palestinian side accused the United States of stabbing the knife in the back.
Although Biden held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during the visit and expressed support for the two-state solution, he did not take any practical action to correct the Trump administration's "biased" policy.
All circles in Pakistan generally believe that the United States has lost the trust of the Palestinian people, that Biden's visit to Pakistan is nothing more than a political show, and that no one expects his visit to bring about a breakthrough in the stagnant Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
Screenshot of the US "Observer" news network report (titled joint press conference held after Biden and Abbas talks)
Britain's "Middle East Eye" news network commented that all indications are that Biden will continue the policies and practices of his predecessor Trump. But U.S. continued support for Israel's occupation of Palestinian land has brought more enemies than friends to the United States in the region.
In this sense, "this visit has failed before it has even begun".
British "Middle East Eye" News Network: Biden has made it clear that the main goal of his visit is to support Israel.
For Saudi Arabia, in order to persuade it to reconcile with Israel and increase oil production, Biden's visit deliberately curbed previous accusations against Saudi Arabia on the so-called human rights issue, but instead praised Saudi Arabia's leadership role in the Middle East issue. But this has not achieved much in addition to attracting ridicule from public opinion.
As Saudi political analyst Ed Al-Ayd has said, the "Middle East version of NATO" is more of a "community imagined" by Biden. "It is possible for Saudi Arabia and Israel to exchange envoys, but it is almost impossible for the two countries to actually join the same military alliance."
Ed Al-Aide
As for Biden's oil production increase, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries generally reacted coldly, saying only that they would discuss related issues at the "OPEC+" regular meeting in August.
Reuters: Biden's "oil hunt" trip returned empty-handed
"Biden will repeat Trump's failure"
What is unreliable is not only to force Arab countries and Israel together to piece together a "Middle East version of NATO", but also to make Iran their "common enemy".
In fact, Biden has been "fighting with himself" on Iran: just a few days after saying that "the United States wants to resume the nuclear agreement with Iran", he has spoken out in the Middle East to build a "regional security alliance to isolate and contain Iran".
Screenshot of the Reuters report
In fact, in the eyes of many Gulf Arab countries, after the strategic contraction of the United States from the Middle East, regional security has increasingly become a matter for regional countries themselves, and dialogue with Iran is the solution.
At a press conference after the Jeddah "Security and Development" summit, the last stop of Biden's Middle East tour, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faysal bin Farhan said there was no discussion on the "Arab-Israeli Mutual Defense Mechanism" at the summit.
He also said Saudi Arabia is open to improving relations with Iran.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Qadimi, who attended the summit, made it clear before leaving for Saudi Arabia that Iraq had not joined and would not join any regional military alliances.
Mustafa Kadimi
Microsoft NBC commented that Biden had promised to "fight to the death" with Trump's Middle East policy when he ran for president, but now it seems that "Biden has followed in Trump's footsteps and will repeat his failures."
Screenshot of the report on the Website of Microsoft National Broadcasting Corporation (MSNBC).
The Quincy Institute for Responsible Governance, an American think tank, pointed out that Biden's Iran policy has completely failed.
Biden would have had the opportunity to say a decisive goodbye to his predecessor's failed practices and show that Washington was serious about living up to its international commitments, but he was slow to do anything. Instead, under the Trump-style extreme pressure he once denounced, the Iranian people suffered another 17 months (since Biden took office).
As the midterm elections approach quickly, Biden will soon pay the price of diplomatic collapse and reap the seeds of conflict sown by Trump.
Screenshot of the official website of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Governance
The US "National Interest" magazine published a criticism that the Biden administration has largely continued Trump's failed "maximum pressure" policy on Iran. This shows that it has failed to overcome a fundamental problem in U.S. Middle East policy, which is the simplification of Middle East countries into "good guys and bad guys, allies and adversaries."
The article warns that for Biden, who is halfway through his term, it is not too late to correct this mistake in the next two years. If you continue to be wrong, "failure will definitely come sooner than success."
Screenshot of a report by National Interest magazine
Source 丨Global Information Broadcast "Global Deep Observation"
Source: Global News Broadcasting