Juan Cole has some pretty sound observations about Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia. After casting cold water on any prospect of Biden’s being able to wring any additional oil out of the Gulf States, he turns to other explanations. Basically, he thinks that President Biden is “playing defense”. He then remarks:
By meeting with the Saudi royal family and, on Saturday, with the Gulf Cooperation Council, Biden is attempting to forestall a stampede of these countries to China, with which most of them already do a great deal of business, and which never bothers them about not having free and fair elections. How security-linked the trip was is obvious from the agreements the White House signed in Saudi Arabia.
Reuters quotes Jake Sullivan, the National Security Adviser, as saying of Biden, “He’s intent on ensuring that there is not a vacuum in the Middle East for China and Russia to fill.â€
Of course, Biden is also striving for further Israeli integration into the Middle East. Saudi Arabia announced Thursday evening that it was granting all countries overflight rights, which benefits Israel’s El Al, which can now save fuel by not having to skirt the kingdom.
He also wants to cement the ceasefire in Yemen, and finally end the Saudi/ UAE war on Yemen, about which Congress has been upset.
concluding with some slightly less sound observations about détente between. Unlike Dr. Cole I suspect that any relaxation between Saudi Arabia and Iran is likely to fit the definition of diplomacy attributed to sports writer Walter Trumbull: the art of saying “nice doggie” while looking around for a stick.
The + in OPEC+ is Russia. Russia and the Gulf States fully cooperate on oil production and pricing. Moreover, Iran and Argentina are about to join BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), and Iran will become a full member of SCO this fall. Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are also about to join BRICS. Venezuelan membership is a distinct possibility.
In light of all this, Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia is a bad joke. He shakes hands with the Saudi prince he called a pariah, and he made an insulting comparison between the Time of Troubles in Northern Ireland and the Jewish/Arab dispute in Palestine.
The West and the US are becoming ever more isolated in the world. The Russia/China axis has a strong attraction to countries outside Europe and North America. No one outside the US alliance system supports the sanctions against Russia, and some allies don’t either, e.g., Hungary and Turkey. The so-called QUAD is a total fraud.
Population replacement in Europe and North America continues apace. Britain may well end up with a Nigerian woman as PM, or maybe an Indian brahman.
And the main policy goal in the EU/UK seems to be de-industrialization and de-agriculturalization. Dutch police shot at protesting farmers. Europeans may actually freeze and starve in the dark this winter. A joke becomes reality.