US President Joe Biden completed his 4-day visit to the Middle East and returned to Washington on July 16. Biden, in a statement before his visit, stated that he would go to the Middle East to increase the oil production of the Gulf countries, to form an anti-Russian alliance and to be removed from China.
However, Biden failed to achieve the results he wanted in the Middle East.
Biden failed to get a specific commitment from Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, and no progress was made in easing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, NBC reported. So, Biden returned to Washington empty-handed.
In order to win the midterm elections in the USA, Biden is trying to prevent the rapid rise in energy prices and inflation in the country. Therefore, the most important goal of Biden's Middle East visit is to increase oil production by Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia. However, Saudi Arabia did not respond positively to Biden. According to the news broadcast by Arab Television in Saudi Arabia, Biden wanted to talk to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman on human rights on July 15. However, Bin Salman, who did not listen to Biden's words, responded to Biden with issues such as the torture of prisoners in Iraq's Abu Ghraib Prison by American soldiers and the murder of Al Jazeera's female reporter Sirin Abu Akleh by Israeli soldiers.
In the meeting with Bin Selman Biden, he stated that he could increase the daily oil production amount of 12 million barrels to 13 million. The aforementioned symbolic production increase will not affect the reduction of oil prices in the USA.
At the "Security and Development" summit held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the United States did its best to involve the Gulf countries in the anti-Russia and anti-Iran front. However, Gulf leaders did not give a clear answer to Biden. In the news published by the Japan Times newspaper, it was stated that the Gulf countries did not want to be with the Western countries in the Ukraine crisis.
Is the Middle East a US "state"?
On the other hand, Biden said twice during his Middle East visit that “the USA will never allow Russia and China to fill a vacuum in the Middle East”.
It seems that according to the USA, the Middle East is a part of the USA, other countries cannot enter the Middle East.
The fact that an American president can say such "outdated" words at a time when globalization is so advanced shows how much the Cold War mentality has settled in American politicians.
“Saudi Arabia's relations with the United States and China are not mutually exclusive,” Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir told CNBC on July 16. We will continue to develop relations with the two countries. China is Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner, major energy market and investor. The United States is an important partner of Saudi Arabia in the fields of security and politics.
With the lessons learned from Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, Middle Eastern countries have come to understand more and more clearly that the Gulf Arab states should seek more strategic autonomy in foreign and energy policy, due to US policies that constantly encourage conflict and division in the region.
The international community has seen that Biden's Middle East trip was nothing more than a symbolic trip.
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