Joe Biden arrives in Saudi Arabia this evening, and the U.S. mainstream media is already distracted by how he will interact with the kingdom’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed, who the CIA says “approved” the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. During Biden’s run for the presidency, he promised to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” nation, and the American media will now smirk as he has to greet the Crown Prince.
U.S. journalists are pointing out that Biden is changing his tune because he needs the Saudis to pump more oil, to put downward pressure on the global price to help avert a Democratic disaster in the fall midterm elections.
But, once again, the American media is missing the much larger story. The U.S., with Israel’s encouragement, could be forming a dangerous anti-Iran military alliance along with the Saudis. Such a Washington/Tel Aviv/Riyadh agreement, masquerading as a “regional security” deal, raises the danger of war and a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.
Today’s New York Times article on Biden’s impending visit buried this proposed “progress on a more formal security guarantee” toward the end. But the genuine experts over at Responsible Statecraft have been issuing warnings. Paul R. Pillar points out that “Iran is. . .a midlevel power whose military has been weakened by decades of sanctions. Its air force consists mainly of equipment that belongs more in a museum. . .”
What’s more, why should the U.S. choose one awful regime, Saudi Arabia, over another — Iran? Just one example: The Saudi air war against Yemen has directly killed an estimated 24,000 people, and at least another 150,000 have died in the conflict.
Part of the answer is Israel. Tel Aviv has long tried to provoke the U.S. into deeper conflict with Iran, and the thaw in Israeli-Saudi relations adds another dimension to that effort.
This more formal U.S./Israel/Saudi alliance will also weaken the diplomatic efforts to restore the Iran nuclear deal, which are already fading. Faezeh Fathizadeh warns that “a definitive end” to the Iran deal “could trigger a nuclear arms race that may include U.S. regional partners like Saudi Arabia.”
Biden’s kowtowing to Saudi Arabia (and Israel) doesn’t even make sense as a way to put pressure on the global oil price. Paul Pillar argues that if the sanctions were lifted on Iran’s oil exports, Teheran says it “could double its exports to help meet global demand and could reach its maximum production capacity within two months.”
Fortunately, two progressive members of Congress, Ro Khanna (D-Cal) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn), have introduced legislation to expose the danger of even closer military ties with Saudi Arabia:
The pair introduced several amendments to next year’s defense spending authorization bill that would block or slow any new defense agreement with the controversial monarchies [including the United Arab Emirates] by forcing a Congressional vote — and a potentially heated public debate — before any pact could enter in force.
Meanwhile, the army of mainstream reporters who are following Joe Biden are ignoring all this. Instead, they will breathlessly scrutinize just how warmly Biden greets the murderous Crown Prince. Did they shake hands? How much did Biden smile?
