According to Saudi Gazette, US President Joe Biden is scheduled
to start an official visit of Saudi Arabia on Friday for the first time since
taking office in early 2021. The two-day visit comes at the invitation of King Salman
bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
During the visit, Biden will meet King Salman and Crown
Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to discuss aspects of cooperation between the two
friendly countries, and the ways to confront the challenges facing the region
and the world.
The Saudi visit aims to further strengthen the historical
bilateral relations and the distinguished strategic partnership between Saudi
Arabia and United States, and the common desire to develop them in all fields.
On Saturday, Biden will attend the first Arab-American
Summit of its kind, convened by King Salman. The summit will also be attended
by the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, as well as the
Jordanian King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and Iraqi
Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. Biden will also hold meetings with these
regional leaders before the summit.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced on
Wednesday that Biden will meet King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman
during his visit to Saudi Arabia. Sullivan confirmed that a “bilateral program”
will be held on Friday night, when Biden arrives, and will include King Salman,
the Crown Prince and “other ministers in the Saudi government.”
Sullivan revealed that Biden will hold bilateral meetings
with a number of regional leaders before the upcoming summit with them, and
refused to answer a question about the sequencing of these meetings.
When asked to give an overview of what Biden will say at the
GCC +3 Summit, Sullivan said, “President will give broad and strong statements
and strategy about his approach to the Middle East.”
He also noted that Biden will discuss security, the economy,
and America’s historic role in the region, and his commitment to moving forward
with strong American leadership in the Middle East.
Analysts
believe that the US president has realistically realized that it is time to
break the deadlock in Saudi-US relations, as relations between the two
countries were not good since the first day of Biden’s arrival at the White
House. Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia and his upcoming summit in Jeddah are in
the interests of the United States in the medium and strategic terms.
They added that the region has become more strategically
important to America and the West, with the continuation of the
Russian-Ukrainian war, which has entered its fifth month, and the failure of
nuclear negotiations with Iran.
It is expected that Biden’s visit will witness signing of
some military agreements between Washington and some of the Arab countries to
ensure the security of the Arab region, in addition to discussing other vital
issues, such as Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine, Libya and Sudan, as well as the
security of the Arab region in general.
Analysts said that Biden will seek to clarify the American
vision and reassure the Arab countries about the Iranian nuclear agreement,
which cannot be predicted about what will happen around it, but there are Arab
fears that America knows.
A few days ago, US State Department spokesman Ned Price
confirmed his country’s readiness to return to the nuclear agreement, provided
that Iran lived up to its commitments.
“If Iran does not respond to negotiations, the chances of
reaching an agreement will decrease,” Price said, while stressing the need to
return to the nuclear agreement before Tehran acquires a nuclear bomb.
Leaders of the ruling Democratic Party also confirmed that
the visit of Biden implies the paramount significance that the American
administration attaches to the region, especially in light of the global energy
crisis, in addition to trying to fix what can be fixed, and repel the strife
that has spread about an imbalance in the American-Saudi or Arab relations.
Iran
is, of course, another big and fundamental question in the Middle East. Indeed,
it is the question that almost all other questions relate to, from Iraq to
Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Palestine. Biden’s declared policy toward Iran
centered around the idea of his administration’s desire to return to the
nuclear agreement signed by the Obama administration where he held the position
of vice president.
The agreement stipulated that Iran would be subject to
monitoring its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, but no
significant progress has been made since Biden took office, and negotiations
between the United States, major powers and Iran stopped in Vienna months ago.
However, it is interesting to note that a quick round of negotiations between
Washington and Tehran took place in Doha prior to Biden’s visit.
It is true that the Doha negotiations did not bring about
anything, but it came as a reminder that the door for dialogue between the two
parties is still open, and the possibilities of returning to the agreement are
still in place.
Biden’s visit to the Middle East that kicked off in Israel
on Wednesday bears hopes of reuniting the countries of the region to confront
common challenges, especially Iran’s nuclear program, which poses an
existential threat to more than one country.
Biden’s visit provides an opportunity for convergence
of views on other files, including oil supplies, in light of the Russian war on
Ukraine. Questions are raised about the extent of this visit’s contribution to
‘forcing’ Tehran to review its rigid position in negotiations over its nuclear
program and return to the agreement that concluded with international powers in
2015.