US president Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia is currently the talk of the town. A considerable number of people are not happy with Biden going to Saudi Arabia. They take this tour as an indicator that the US is fine with everything that Saudi Arabia has done over the years which is a wrong assumption.
Just because someone is visiting someone, it doesn’t mean the beef is over. The sitting Prime Minister of Pakistan visited India multiple times, however, the differences are still there and the foreign policy is still the same. So, if Biden is visiting KSA, it doesn’t mean that the US is fine with its policies. A tour is not a signifier of a good relationship, but a better one.
The US was very vocal about the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Its media accuses the crowned Prince MBS of his murder. A very common problem with the US is that its sets the standards of morality that become very hard for itself to meet later. It created a very heated environment for Saudi Arabia on Khashoggi, but now the moral code is so high that Biden is having a really hard time for a tour because Americans are not happy with him meeting MBS.
The American media is constantly reminding him of the policy of the US regarding the murder of Khashoggi and his promise to holding MBS accountable for what he allegedly did to that columnist, the promise that was made during his election campaign.
MBS is not Osama Bin Laden that you can malign without any proof and execute. He is the leader of a state that you rely on. And this is the reason that Biden has to keep his differences and concerns aside and hold talks with KSA.
In order to counter the criticism on the tour, Biden wrote an OPED and said that he is going to KSA for the stability in the middle eastern region along with the “American Interests” and these two words are the sole purpose of the tour. He also said that “human rights” are on the top agenda of his tour.
Will Biden address the elephant in the room? Will he talk about Khashoggi with MBS? The answer is no. He won’t, because this is not the agenda of his tour. The US is not a country that follows a moral code.
If it was the case, the US would reprimand India and Israel of what they are doing. US which has a problem with MBS (allegedly) ordering the killing of Khashoggi had no problem with Israeli forces shooting Shireen (a Palestinian journalist) saying that it was “unintentional”.
The policy of the US is centred around its own interests. Biden is going to KSA drag down another rival, Russia. The US has strictly forbidden everyone to buy oil and other goods from Russia. When you deprive the buyers of a major supplier, the demand increases extensively putting a burden on the other suppliers.
Now the price of oil is rising in the market due to shortage and it is being predicted that there might be a scarcity of oil later as we are not buying Russian oil. Thus, there will be immense pressure on the US from many countries to revisit its policy about Russian oil, which is why President Biden is going to KSA to demand Saudi Arabia increase the production of oil to meet the increased supply demand. Biden has stated in his OPED that he is going to KSA to counter the aggression of Russia and China.
US might loathe the KSA regime, but not its money and the potential of its resources. Oil will be the primary topic of this tour. But Iran and Israel are also likely to be discussed in the tour due to the shared interests of both countries.
