Planning for next month’s trip has been underway for months, with US officials advising Saudi and Israeli counterparts on the outline of a visit. Originally scheduled for late June, the trip was postponed for two weeks to coincide with a scheduled visit to Europe for the G7 and NATO summits. The White House had refused to confirm that a trip would take place, even if it said it was planned. “We are now in a place where we feel this has come together in a very constructive way for everyone involved and the president is looking forward to it,” a senior government official told reporters Monday night. In Israel, Biden plans to meet with the country’s leadership, although incumbent Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has warned that his fragile governing coalition could be on the verge of collapse. Biden will also see US-provided defense systems and meet with athletes visiting for an international Jewish sporting event. He will also meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, most likely in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, to discuss the prospect of resuming peace talks. Air Force One will fly directly from Israel to Jeddah, in itself a sign of warming relations in an area where direct travel bans were once an extension of deep-seated hostility between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In Jeddah, he will attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes the region’s monarchies, as well as Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. The fact that the meetings took place in Jeddah, and not in the capital Riyadh, could be seen as a symbolic degradation by an official “state visit”. The last US president to visit Jeddah, the kingdom’s second largest city and commercial center, was President George W. Bush in 1990. However, according to a senior government official, Biden is expected to “see” the powerful Mohammed bin Salman as part of his engagement with Saudi leaders, although whether that meant a one-on-one meeting or something less formal remained unclear. The announcement of Saudi Arabia for the visit was clearer. “The successor and President Biden will have formal talks focusing on various areas of bilateral co-operation,” the statement said. Officials say Biden approved the trip after some initial reluctance to back down on his promise to make Saudi Arabia pay the price for its role in the horrific assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Kasoghi in 2018. Mehr President in Congress criticized a trip and specifically a meeting with Prince Mohammed, the daily ruler of the kingdom. Biden was reluctant to commit Prince Mohammed, deciding early in his term that he would speak only to the father of the crown prince, King Salman, who is 86 years old and has health problems. The White House said in February 2021 that Biden was trying to “recalibrate” relations with Riyadh, including avoiding the crown prince, who was blamed by US intelligence for Kasogi’s assassination. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising global energy prices and the growing nuclear threat from Iran have mixed up global thinking. And now Biden has decided it is necessary to warm ties with a longtime US partner in the Middle East. “In the end, the President firmly believes in this moment in the world, with vested interests in the United States and the American people, who are visiting Saudi Arabia for a summit of leaders from across the Middle East to discuss face-to-face with “Leaders, including the Saudis, the way we act as partners is the smart thing to do at the right time and it offers opportunities for significant gains,” said the senior government official. High gas prices, which hit a national average of $ 5 a gallon over the weekend, have consumed the White House and become a major political responsibility for Biden. While OPEC Plus announced plans this month for modest output growth, the change may have only a limited effect on gas prices in the United States. Speaking to reporters this weekend, Biden insisted the trip was not linked to global energy prices, although the United States is pushing the Saudi-led OPEC Plus team to increase oil production as gas prices soar. . “The commitments from the Saudis have nothing to do with energy,” he said. “It happens to be a bigger meeting taking place in Saudi Arabia. That is why I am going. And it has to do with national security for them – for the Israelis.” The Biden government, led by White House Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, is working with Israel and Saudi Arabia to mediate economic and security agreements as the two countries try to thaw ties. Saudi Arabia does not formally recognize Israel and the nations have no formal diplomatic relations. The agreements will allow commercial flights traveling from Israel to fly over Saudi Arabian airspace. A separate agreement could resolve a current issue of two strategically located islands in the Red Sea, bringing them under the control of Saudi Arabia. The United States is also working with Saudi Arabia to extend the ceasefire in Yemen, where the Saudi-led war has been raging for years. In a statement following the extension of the ceasefire, Biden praised Riyadh’s “courageous leadership”. Even before it was officially announced, Biden’s trip has attracted the scrutiny of some Democrats and human rights defenders. “I have mixed feelings about this, and if the President called me, I would say, ‘Mr President, you can not trust these people. “Their standards are not ours, their values are not ours,” Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, told CNN on Tuesday. Kasogi’s fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, accused Biden of losing his moral compass as news of his trip spread. “President Biden’s decision to meet the MBS is horrific for me and for supporters of freedom and justice everywhere,” she told CNN last week. Officials say human rights are a consistent aspect of all of Biden’s diplomatic talks, including with Saudi Arabia. “Many of these conversations are being held behind closed doors,” said a senior administration official.
