At the opening of the “Jeddah Security and Development Summit”, US President Joe Biden said that the US will continue to be an active and relevant partner in the Middle East. Biden urged leaders of Arab countries attending the summit to see human rights as a force for economic and social change.
In the opening speech of the summit, Joe Biden addressed Arab leaders, “The United States is investing in building the positive future of the region jointly with all of you, and the United States is not going anywhere.”
Biden said Washington will not leave a vacuum filled by Russia, China or Iran.
President Biden hopes to turn a new page in US relations in the Middle East. In this context, the US desires to leave military conflicts behind and instead seek a region that respects the internal affairs of individual nations, but seeks economic integration and common defense while concerns about Iran persist. Biden also said at the summit that the United States is determined to ensure that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons.
While Joe Biden, on his first Middle East tour as president, focused on the summit attended by six Gulf countries and Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lagged behind the summit. Biden’s meeting with Mohammed bin Salman has sparked criticism over human rights violations in the United States.
Bilateral Talks
On the other hand, President Joe Biden held a series of meetings today with the leaders of Iraq, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Biden’s agenda at the well-attended Arab summit in Saudi Arabia is to develop regional missile and defense capabilities.
Beginning his first trip to the Middle East as president by visiting Israel, Biden intends to use the meeting in Jeddah to integrate Israel as part of a new axis driven largely by shared concerns about Iran. A senior Biden administration official told reporters, “We believe there is great value in incorporating as many capabilities into this region as possible, and we certainly believe that Israel has significant air and missile defense capabilities as needed. we do,” he said.
Biden promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” on the global stage after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in 2018, but ultimately decided that US interests needed a readjustment, not a break, in relations with the world’s largest oil exporter.
