US President Joe Biden said he will travel to the Middle East next week to start a new and promising chapter for the US role in the region.
In an article in The Washington Post titled "The Reason for My Visit to Saudi Arabia", Biden reviewed the goals of his visit to the region, and to Saudi Arabia in particular, and what he considered the successes achieved by his administration of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the war in Yemen, and said that his trip to the Middle East comes at a vital time for the region. It will also contribute to promoting American interests.
He said that the Middle East that he will visit has become more stable than what his administration inherited a year and a half ago, and that a more secure and integrated Middle East benefits the Americans in many ways, as he put it.
He added that he would pursue intensive diplomacy to achieve his goals, including through face-to-face meetings.
He added that his trip to the Middle East comes at a vital time for the region and will contribute to the promotion of American interests, saying that it is unlikely that a region united through diplomacy and cooperation will cause violent extremism that threatens the United States or in new wars that could place new burdens on its forces.
Biden stated that the Middle East's waterways are essential to global trade, and that their energy resources are vital to mitigating the impact on global supplies of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Relations with Saudi Arabia
In the article published by the Washington Post, the US president said that the meeting of the region's leaders in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, would be an indication of the possibility of a more stable Middle East, as he put it.
Biden described Saudi Arabia as a strategic partner for his country for 80 years, and stressed that his goal from the beginning was to redirect relations with it, not sever it, noting that he would be the first US president to travel from Israel to Jeddah.
He added that his goal when he meets the Saudi leadership next Friday is to promote a partnership based on interests while upholding American values.
He also said that the kingdom helped restore unity among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, adding that it is now working with his administration's experts to help stabilize oil markets with producers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Palestinian-Israeli conflict
On another issue, US President Joe Biden said that his administration has re-established US-Palestinian relations and, by working with the Congress, has recovered about $500 million to support the Palestinians.
Biden said that his country contributed to ending the war in Gaza in just 11 days, and that this war could have lasted for months.
He talked about the recent Palestinian-Israeli contacts, noting that Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke together this week for the first time in 5 years.
He also said that his administration worked with Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan to maintain peace without allowing what he described as terrorists to rearm, as he put it.
With regard to relations with Israel, Biden indicated that his administration had passed the largest support package to Tel Aviv in history, estimated at more than 4 billion dollars.
Iran is isolated
In this article, Biden considered that Iran has become isolated until it returns to the 2015 nuclear agreement.
He said his administration will continue to increase diplomatic and economic pressure until Iran returns to compliance with the deal.
Operations in Iraq
With regard to Iraq, the US President said that his country had finished its combat mission there and American soldiers had been transferred to focus on training Iraqis while maintaining the international coalition against the Islamic State.
Biden said the rate of Iranian-sponsored attacks in Iraq has fallen sharply compared to two years ago.
Yemen war
Regarding the war in Yemen, the US President noted that after a year of continuous diplomacy, the armistice was concluded and aid began to reach Yemeni cities and towns that were under siege.
Biden said that the past few months in Yemen were the safest in seven years because of the truce that was reached.
He added that he appointed an envoy to Yemen and communicated with regional leaders, including the Saudi king, to lay the groundwork for a truce.
state organization
In the same article, the US President indicated that US forces had killed the leader of the Islamic State in Syria last February.
This demonstrated the ability of the United States to eliminate terrorist threats, no matter where they are, he said.