Fence-mending between Middle Eastern rivals offers an opportunity for Joe Biden when he travels there next month to tackle an issue much closer to home. But there are risks, too.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine driving global crude prices higher, the US President is seeking to repair ties with Saudi Arabia after shunning the world’s largest oil producer over its human rights record. Top US ally Israel meanwhile sees the Biden trip as a way to forge regional bonds — including with Riyadh.
US rapprochement with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, whose nation Biden once vowed to make a “pariah” over the 2018 murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi, may lead to more Saudi oil on the global market after months of US lobbying, and allow Biden to cast his visit as a political success.
Lower prices for oil (though that is not a given even if the Saudis do increase output) would undercut a key source of income for Russia’s war and help reduce the pain for Americans at the gas pump in the run up to the November midterm elections, with Biden’s Democrats on the back foot domestically already with voters.
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