<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655414958288,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000016e-3da0-d10d-abef-3df3e9dc0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655414958288,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000016e-3da0-d10d-abef-3df3e9dc0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55302152", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1033199"} }); ","_id":"00000181-6e6b-ddb6-a5eb-6e7b81b50000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedPresident Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss security, economic, and diplomatic interests culminates months of delicate diplomacy with the oil-rich kingdom that has grown more urgent as sanctions targeting Russia’s energy exports ricochet back to American households.
The White House has blamed “Putin’s price hike” for record inflation and gasoline prices, which have surged to record highs after the United States and Europe imposed sanctions on Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Yet sanctions intended to dent the Russian economy have faltered, with Moscow reaping windfall revenue from oil, gas, and coal. Research by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air found unprecedented prices and high export volumes for Russian fuel despite a crackdown on imports by Western countries.
BIDEN WILL ‘SEE’ DE FACTO SAUDI LEADER AFTER KINGDOM TOUTS ‘OFFICIAL TALKS’
Biden and White House officials said the July visit is not a push to urge Saudi Arabia to increase its oil output and insisted human rights are still paramount for the president — despite his vow as a candidate to make the kingdom “a pariah” for its abuses. A U.S. intelligence report deemed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for the 2018 assassination of a Saudi journalist.
Instead, Biden has billed the trip as a mission of peace.
“I’m not going to change my view on human rights,” Biden said recently when asked about Saudi abuses. “But as president of the United States, my job is to bring peace if I can. And that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
Biden later insisted that prospective Saudi commitments “don’t relate to anything having to do with energy.”
“It has to do with national security for them,” the president added.
Though he declined to punish the crown prince after Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Biden had refused to meet with him or even speak to him on the phone.
The White House has downplayed expectations for the visit, but without the crisis in Europe, Biden would face little of the current urgency compelling him to travel to the Persian Gulf in mid-July.
“It would not be happening if it weren’t for Ukraine,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and State Department veteran.
In Jeddah, Biden will meet with King Salman as well as the crown prince, who is the country’s de facto leader.
The White House has insisted that Biden stands behind his support of human rights, calling the president a “straight shooter” on the issue, emphasizing his decision to release the intelligence report.
But asked whether Biden intends to raise human rights issues with the crown prince directly, a senior administration official said the president would likely do so “behind closed doors.”
Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), an assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor during the Obama administration, drew a through-line between the war in Ukraine and Biden’s Jeddah trip, stating that Washington has “one overriding goal today that is more important than anything else, and that is beating Putin.”
“For me, this is not about human rights versus national security or oil versus Khashoggi,” Malinowski told Politico. “It’s about what is the best way for the United States as a superpower to ensure our client states that depend on our security are on our side in this crucial contest and do their part in ensuring Putin fails.”
Whether Biden’s outreach will succeed in drawing Saudi Arabia closer to Washington — and away from Russia, or even China — isn’t clear.
Gulf partners have been disappointed as Washington seeks to reorient its foreign policy toward Asia, de-prioritizing the Middle East, and want a tougher policy toward Iran. They also want more security guarantees, Miller said.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping is the largest recipient of Saudi oil, while Saudi Arabia has an oil cartel agreement that includes Russia as a member, he added. On Ukraine, the kingdom has resisted pressure from Washington to sanction Putin.
“Whether or not they’re prepared to give any of that up now, I don’t know,” Miller said. “But I’m sure [the crown prince] is thinking he’s won.”
