Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
As frustrating as it may be, shutting the door on negotiations with Iran has few advantages.
It was a victory for Biden, but the jihadi threat to United States is not nearly as acute as the challenges that ail the nation internally.
One of the reasons Biden travelled to the Middle East is to counter the perception – and reality – that America was stepping back from the region because of domestic preoccupations and a foreign policy focused on Russia and China.
Let’s give the Biden administration the benefit of the doubt. Having deprioritized the Middle East for 16 months, the weeds grew.
The President's visit reflects less a strategic shift in administration thinking about a troubled region and more an effort at short term crisis management. Indeed, Biden will find a region filled with problems -- Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- he can't resolve and one that is wary of America's own staying power and stability.
Still, as he travels to the region, Biden confronts big challenges—the need to increase oil supply; a broken Israeli-Palestinian peace process; looming tensions between Iran and Israel; and an uncomfortable meeting with a Saudi crown prince, whose country Biden once deemed a “pariah”—that only offer the prospect of incremental gains.
Pressure has been growing within the Biden administration to mend fences with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The former prime minister will try to regain power, but his success is not inevitable—or impossible.
Keeping the Bennett coalition afloat and preventing Netanyahu’s return are clearly priorities for the Biden administration. But with the Israeli government teetering, Biden will have his work cut out for him.
The U.S.-Saudi relationship has always been transactional. And that's the way Biden should approach any reconciliation.
