On July 16, local time, US President Biden concluded his first visit to the Middle East since taking office. During the visit, Biden stated that the United States will be an active partner in the Middle East for a long time, but the leaders of the Middle East countries did not give a clear response to the intention of the United States to establish a regional security alliance. In addition, Biden has also failed to persuade countries such as Saudi Arabia to increase oil production.
During this trip to the Middle East, Biden first visited Israel, and then held a “security and development” summit with leaders of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and six Gulf countries in Jeddah, a coastal city in western Saudi Arabia. At the summit, Biden put forward visions and strategies such as jointly building a regional security alliance.
Previously, U.S.-Saudi relations were cold due to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden blamed the Saudi crown prince for the incident and threatened to make Saudi Arabia a “untouchable state.” However, it is widely believed that in the face of issues such as the energy crisis caused by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Biden will back down on this event.
However, the joint statement issued by the United States and Saudi Arabia after the talks did not mention increasing oil supplies, meaning that Biden’s visit did not yield substantive results on the oil issue.
“Oil diplomacy” frustrated Biden’s first Middle East trip yielded few results. Click on the video to see what it is!