Joe Biden in Saudi Arabia: What are his real goals?

Posted on by Elijah J Magnier

Written by – Elijah J. Magnier:

A few months ago, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) said that “the potential of the world is in Saudi Arabia, and if he (US President Joe Biden) wants to miss it, there are others out there(China) who will be very happy. I don’t care what he thinks of me. It’s up to him to think about America’s interests.” The young prince didn’t have long to wait because Biden announced his coming visit to the Middle East this week to boost US interests, not at the initiative invitation of Saudi Arabia. Are the justifications of the US President honest and reasonable? What are his fundamental objectives?

Biden published a recent article in the ‘Washington Post’ – a move to satisfy the newspaper that lost the columnist Jamal Khashoggi who was dismembered by MBS’s death squad at the Saudi embassy in Turkey, according to the CIA conclusion – explaining why he is visiting Saudi Arabia. Biden is breaking his promise to teach dictators a lesson by punishing Saudi Arabia, not to supply arms to the Saudis that he pledged to make a “pariah” and to stop the Saudi war on Yemen. Biden is literarily breaking all his promises and is explaining that his visit is “the start of a new and more promising chapter of America’s engagement there”.

In one sentence, Biden has garnered more than one intentionally misleading inaccuracy. The Saudi-US relationship is ancient, starting with the year of the kingdom’s creation in 1931 and after the appointment of the first US ambassador in 1940. Since then, the relationship has developed to a strategic level. The prestigious position that Riyadh represents among the Gulf Arab States, its high oil production, and its proliferating financial resources, which it has generously spent on its investments inside the US and in the Kingdom, made Riyadh a special US partner. Moreover, the Saudis have always selected US companies to work with in Saudi Arabia for several decades on energy and infrastructure development projects.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan said his country supported the US wars and backed them at Washington’s request. That clearly indicated the old and expected Saudi role in the last decades in financing many US President’s wars even though unable to secure Congress’s budget support. As for the point of the new shape of “American involvement in the Middle East” that Biden raised in his justification to visit Saudi Arabia, it is surprising and nonsensical to hear these words from an experienced President (former Congressman and a vice President). Indeed, US forces are present in dozens of bases in the Middle East, have soldiers in Iraq, occupy the northeast in Syria, and the US Sixth Fleet is stationed in Mediterranean waters. Moreover, 

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Proofread by: Maurice Brasher

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Published by Elijah J Magnier

Veteran War Zone Correspondent and Senior Political Risk Analyst with over 35 years' experience covering the Middle East and acquiring in-depth experience, robust contacts and political knowledge in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Syria. Specialised in terrorism and counter-terrorism, intelligence, political assessments, strategic planning and thorough insight in political networks in the region. Covered on the ground the Israeli invasion to Lebanon (1st war 1982), the Iraq-Iran war, the Lebanese civil war, the Gulf war (1991), the war in the former Yugoslavia (1992-1996), the US invasion to Iraq (2003 to date), the second war in Lebanon (2006), the war in Libya and Syria (2011 to date). Lived for many years in Lebanon, Bosnia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Syria.