Bidens Dithering in the Middle East Is Forcing Old Enemies to Mend Broken Bridges by Martin Jay!
(2021-12-30 at 01:13:03 )

Bidens Dithering in the Middle East Is Forcing Old Enemies to Mend Broken Bridges by Martin Jay!

In recent weeks, Arab countries, Iran and Turkey have all been working out how they can move forward and get along with each other, all due to "sleepy Joe" Biden being asleep at the wheel. Where is all this heading?

Barely a year in office and what has Joe Biden done in the Middle East? Could it be an after dinner game, like what Europhiles in Brussels play ("Name five famous Belgians")? Name five decisions President Biden has made in the Middle East?

United States presidents can be bold. And they can be wrong. But the worst type are those who are neither bold nor decisive in anything they do. Joe Biden, under the microscope, appears to be a United States president asleep at the wheel on so many domestic issues but when we look at the Middle East, it is almost as though he is in a coma. And it is starting to affect how the region operates and how its countries interact with one another.

During Donald Trumps early days in office, he made a point of doing nothing on the international circuit until the Saudis were ready to accept him as his first official international trip to mark his presidency.

The background to this was a strong relationship between Jared Kuchner and Mohamed Bin Salman - the latter installed as Crown Prince by the Trump administration on the condition that a recognition was made of Israel.

But the Saudis wanted more. One of the reasons why it took six whole months before Donald Trump made it to Riyadh and ingratiated himself with the cultural histrionics of sword dancing and looking at best ridiculous, was that a second dirty deal was being carved about how the White House would go through with a particularly mendacious ruse against Qatar - which transpired quickly as a blockade on the tiny energy rich state and statements from Donald Trump condemning them for supporting terrorism. In fact, there was even a plan on the table crafted by a middleman working for Blackwater chief Erik Prince, to draw Donald Trump into a plan which would involve a private army overthrowing the Royal Family in Qatar.

The last part of this did not transpire as Donald Trump smelled a rat and got nervous at the last moment and the middleman involved, George Nader, soon found himself caught in a Central Intelligence Agency trap which landed him in prison and his blueprint for the Qatar invasion scrapped, as part of the Mueller investigation.

For the Saudis, it was nirvana since the day Donald Trump arrived and danced to their tune, even though Mr. Kushner was soon to try and capitalize on the situation to harangue the Qataris to invest in his failed New York City real estate endeavours.

For MbS in particular nothing could go wrong and the years of fretting over the Obama years seemed well behind them. Finally a United States president who is going to show us some respect and give us a much better deal. Indeed, it was rarely pointed out by journalists in the United States that the so called amazing arms deal that Donald Trump claimed to have pulled off, was in fact, as Trump likes to put it himself "fake news". Not only was the figure grossly inflated but it was also not explained to the press that the terms of payment were on the "never never" which gave the Saudis the flexibility to reduce the speed of the purchases and even pull out.

And then everything changed with the Mr. Khashoggi murder for Donald Trump and MbS. The Saudi Crown prince was seriously underwhelmed by the Donald Trump response which was barely supportive by any stretch of the imagination.

At this point, relations between Washington,D.C. and KSA began to sour and in so many ways, what we are witnessing today are rooted here.

Joe Biden came into office huffing and puffing about the Saudis and the Mr. Khashoggi murder and how the Saudis would have to pay a price for what was conveniently dubbed a hideous human rights abuse against almost a United States citizen.

But the reality is that President Biden has not done anything of the sort. In fact, in many ways he has shown that all the ranting and remonstrating about Mr. Khashoggi was actually just fake news being created to hit the Trump administration.

What we see now is a weak, ineffective and, at times, moronic United States president who can barely even remember his own tepid rhetoric on Saudi Arabia and their horrendous, barbarous attacks on Yemenis, even to this day. Just recently, he found himself on the back legs on a deal he signed off to allow more arms sales to the Saudis, despite Congress resisting the deal.

Given the confusion and the dead-dead slow negotiations between the United States and Iran, the Saudis are now lost and confused. They can not take President Biden seriously and are almost certainly betting on him not being around for a second term. Bearing in mind that they could not take Donald Trump seriously to help them in their hour of need, amidst talk to possible plots to overthrow MbS, it is hardly surprising that they think of Mr. Biden as a fool, who is not worth the time of day.

And so, the recent news that the Kingdom has turned to China to help it develop ballistic missiles really should not come as a surprise to anyone given the backdrop of the regimes worries both domestically and regionally.

There have been plenty of warning signs since Mr. Khashoggi that the Saudis were shopping around and warming to both China and the Russians as the deal that they had struck with the Americans was very expensive and brought little advantages politically.

With China as a partner now, there is leverage towards Iran which, in itself, actually works as a lightning rod to defuse tensions rather than exacerbate them.

In fact, relations in the region are generally improving between old rivalries on a grand scale due to President Bidens dithering, as we have just seen a new page turned with Turkey which now is beefing up relations with its old foes in the region like the UAE and Egypt.

The fact that Abu Dhabi orchestrated the attempted coup d etat against Mr. Erdogan in 2016 and earlier in 2013 masterminded the successful overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood icon Morsi in Egypt shows security concerns, COVID, domestic woes, Irans growth are enough to smash heads together and work out how enemies can seek a workable peace with one another.

Who knows where this all heading, but a peace deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran is not as far fetched as it sounds. Who needs the Americans??

"This relevant article, its pictures, and its links are here:"

Reprinted here from the "Strategic Culture Foundation" provides a platform for exclusive analysis, research and policy comment on Eurasian and global affairs. We are covering political, economic, social and security issues worldwide. Since 2005 our journal has published thousands of analytical briefs and commentaries with the unique perspective of independent contributors. SCF works to broaden and diversify expert discussion by focusing on hidden aspects of international politics and unconventional thinking. Benefiting from the expanding power of the Internet, we work to spread reliable information, critical thought and progressive ideas.