After several months of will-he-won’t-he speculation, the White House confirmed that President Joe Biden’s trip to the Middle East next month will include a stop in Saudi Arabia. There, he will meet with Mohammed bin Salman, ending the crown prince’s diplomatic isolation over his involvement in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The decision is a staggering about-face from Biden, who during his presidential campaign vowed to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state.
This isn’t the only apparent change in the Biden administration’s approach toward the Gulf. There are widespread reports that it is on the verge of signing a substantive new security pact with the United Arab Emirates. The deal is rumored to include regional economic and security cooperation, as well as the potential for a concrete U.S. security guarantee to Abu Dhabi.
All this has met with a wave of praise in Washington, with many of those who normally argue that realpolitik is immoral suddenly discovering the merits of realism when it comes to the U.S.-Saudi relationship.
Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, declared that “a pure, values-centered approach to Saudi Arabia … is unsustainable.” Andrew Exum, a defense official in President Barack Obama’s administration, lauded the president for “sacrificing his values today in the interests of something we haven’t seen much of in the past two decades: realism.”
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