The Takeaway: Biden visit launches new chapter in US-Saudi ties
Egypt braces for Nile Dam filling; Can Israel help Morocco with Western Sahara?; Palestinians blocked at airport; Erdogan cancels student loan interest; Islamic State menaces Iraq-Syria border.
Our take: Biden’s Saudi reset means relationship about more than Khashoggi killing
Fist bump signals turnaround. In a dramatic policy reversal, President Joe Biden on July 15 traded in his campaign “pariah” pledge for a televised fist bump and hours of dialogue with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on a wide range of issues facing the Middle East.
Biden came into office planning to shun the kingdom for its human rights abuses and the 2018 murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
With his trip to Jeddah, however, Biden sought to balance his campaign promise of a values-driven foreign policy with strategic concerns in the Middle East, soaring oil prices at home and his goal of countering Russia, China and Iran.
Missing the mark? If those were his aims, Biden’s critics say he fell short. “The question is, is what he got consequential? And did he pay any price for getting it?” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
