Energy security, confronting Iran’s threats, and stabilizing the Yemen truce will top the discussions of US President Joe Biden during the second phase of his Middle East tour.
Hours before the arrival of the presidential plane in Jeddah, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan revealed that Biden would announce a US strategy to enhance security and peace in the region.
Speaking to reporters accompanying the US delegation, Sullivan said that Biden would discuss the energy security with the Saudi leadership and during the Gulf summit with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.
The adviser indicated that the US administration was hoping that OPEC would boost crude oil production, ruling out at the same time that the talks would yield any bilateral declarations on energy.
“I don’t think we should expect a particular announcement here bilaterally because we believe any further action taken to ensure that there is sufficient energy to protect the health of the global economy will be done in the context of OPEC+,” Sullivan told the reporters.
In addition, the advisor said that the US president was seeking to restore balance to US-Saudi relations, consolidate and extend the truce in Yemen, and start working on a broader settlement to resolve the crisis.
On the goals that Biden was looking to achieve during his participation in the Gulf Summit 3, Sullivan said that those were divided into two parts: First, “he wants the opportunity to sit around the table with [Arab] leaders and hear from them and be able to share his views…”
He continued: “The second thing is there are very specific steps that they will be discussing tomorrow. Some involve regional integration, including Iraq’s integration in the region, including deepening economic integration among some of the key states that will be sitting around that table.”
Iran and its destabilizing activities are also high on the agenda, according to Sullivan.
Biden is expected to announce his strategy for the Middle East region, which, according to Sullivan, opposes the strategy of the past two decades that witnessed land wars waged by the United States in the region.
“It’s a strategy fit for purpose for 2022 as opposed to the two decades of major land wars that the US fought in this region over the course of the 2000s,” he underlined.
Sullivan criticized the previous US administration's approach, saying: “The last administration walked away from the two-state solution in any serious contemplation or consideration. It walked away from the Palestinians, cutting off all funding to them, which we have restored. It basically walked away from diplomatic ties with the Palestinians, which the President has obviously restored, and you saw that at the highest level with his meeting with Abu Mazen today.”
He added: “The previous administration walked away from the Iran nuclear deal, and in doing so, walked away from our allies — with whom we had been united — so that it was the US who was isolated on the Iranian nuclear issue, not Iran.”
The US National Security Adviser expressed great optimism over deepening Israel's integration in the region, the possibility of moving forward with the two-state solution in the long term, and pushing diplomatic efforts in this direction, explaining that Biden had strong talks on the issue of regional peace.
