By Steve Holland
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden arrives in Israel on Wednesday to kick off a high-stakes trip to the Middle East dominated by efforts to persuade Gulf allies to pump more oil and bring Israel and Saudi Arabia closer together.
Biden will spend two days in Jerusalem for talks with Israeli leaders before meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday in the occupied West Bank.
Afterward, he will take a direct flight from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – a first for an American president – on Friday for talks with Saudi officials and to attend a summit of Gulf allies.
U.S. officials say the trip – Biden’s first to the Middle East as president – could produce more steps toward normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia, historic foes but also two of America’s strongest allies in the turbulent region.
“We’re making steps gradually toward that end,” said an Israeli official. “The fact that President Biden visits Israel, and from here will fly directly to Saudi Arabia encapsulates a lot of the dynamics that have been evolving over the last months.”
Biden’s trip aims to promote regional stability, deepen Israel’s integration in the region and counter Iranian influence and aggression by Russia and China.
“This trip will reinforce a vital American role in a strategically consequential region,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.
Biden, under pressure at home to bring down soaring gasoline prices that have damaged his standing in public opinion polls, is expected to press Gulf allies to expand oil production to help bring down gasoline prices.
PRESSURE OVER SAUDI VISIT
A centerpiece of Biden’s visit will be talks in Jeddah with Saudi leaders including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, accused by the U.S. intelligence community of being behind the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The meeting is a reversal of Biden’s previous position of making Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for the Khashoggi death. How the White House handles the optics of the meeting and whether photos will be released of it will be closely watched.
Aides say he will bring up human rights concerns while in Saudi Arabia, but he has nonetheless drawn fire from a wide array of critics.
“Biden needs the Saudis to increase their oil production to help keep global energy prices in check,” wrote Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan in an opinion piece on Tuesday. “The trip sends the message that the United States is willing to look the other way when its commercial interests are at stake.”
Biden will make brief remarks on Wednesday at an arrival ceremony in Israel and he will receive a briefing from Israeli defense officials on the U.S.-supported Iron Dome defense system and a new laser-enabled system called Iron Beam.
He will pay his respects at Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to Holocaust victims in World War Two.
Israel has been jolted by internal political strife with previous prime minister Naftali Bennett’s coalition collapsing in June.
This has left Yair Lapid as caretaker prime minister until new elections are held later this year, and Biden will meet with him. The pair will hold a joint news conference on Thursday.
Biden will also meet past prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now the opposition leader.
OUTREACH TO PALESTINIANS
Biden’s talks with Abbas will mark the highest level of face-to-face contact between the United States and the Palestinians since then-President Donald Trump took a tough approach to the Palestinians upon taking office in 2017.
Tensions are high between Israel and the Palestinians over the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in May. Her family, having accused the United States of providing impunity for Israel over her killing, has asked to meet Biden during his trip to the region this week.
The Palestinians, while appreciating the resumption of ties under Biden, want him to make good on pledges to reopen the U.S consulate in Jerusalem.
They also want the United States to remove the Palestine Liberation Organization from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations, preserve the historic status quo in Jerusalem and curb Jewish settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Israeli officials said Biden’s visit will include what they called the Jerusalem Declaration on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership.
One official said the joint declaration “takes a very clear and united stand against Iran, its nuclear program and its aggression across the region and commits both countries to using all elements of their national power against the Iranian nuclear threat.”
Biden is likely to face questions from Israel and from Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates about the wisdom of his attempts to revive the Iran nuclear deal.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Maayan Lubell, Dan Williams, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Mary Milliken and Howard Goller)
