Biden’s tour-de Mideast

Washington has once again reiterated its geo-political alignment with the Middle East. President Joe Biden’s landmark visit to Israel, and then his stopover in Saudi Arabia, has helped draw new lines of interaction but merely on the crystal-clear premise that the Jewish state remains a priority and the Arabs must follow suit. This resolve on the part of Biden is an extension of the strategy that the US shall remain involved in the region and will not cede ground to China and Russia. This has come at a time when the US is apparently at the backburner, and its defeat and exit from Afghanistan had buoyed regional powers to fill the vacuum.

Biden listed out Tehran, Beijing and Moscow as prime adversaries and toed a line of action that his predecessors had fomented. The pro-active meddling is owing to the energy profile that flows from the Arab soils. In an era of price spiral, Washington has to closely work with major economies of the region to stay afloat. Coupled with this is the armament and warfare issues that mint billions of dollars in US coffers. That is the reason the US looks the other way while Gulf states bombard Yemen and Israel unleashes terrors on Palestinians.

The US has an opportunity to mend fences and reintroduce itself as a productive force. Its policy of appeasing one at the cost of another has not worked. The debacle in Southwest Asia is a case in point. Biden’s electoral thrust was to reinstate the nuclear deal with Iran and work collectively for scaling down tensions. Likewise, prevailing over Tel Aviv to address the two-state solution was another pivot in the Mideast. But that has not been the case to this day.

Biden’s huddle with Arab leaders has come at a time when the world is taking a twist towards bipolarity. The US needs a cautious approach, one that is not confrontational. Will the White House heed calls for pacifism?

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2022.

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