6.06.2023
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for a three-day visit focused on security and economic cooperation as the US is trying to counter China’s rising influence in the region. China is now Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner and biggest purchaser of Saudi oil.
High on the agenda for Blinken’s June 6-8 visit is Saudi Arabia’s potential normalization with Israel. So far Israel established relations with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
“The United States has a real national security interest in promoting normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” Blinken said Monday in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington. “We believe we can and indeed we must play an integral role in advancing it.”
Since president Joe Biden’s visit in July 2022, senior US officials aides Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein have made several trips to the kingdom and so did national security adviser Jake Sullivan on May 7 in a visit partly aimed at securing Saudi-Israel normalization.
The Biden administration has played down expectations of an imminent breakthrough but points to progress between the two countries. A pending deal would permit Israel’s Muslim citizens to take direct flights to the Saudi city of Mecca for the hajj pilgrimage.
In order to achieve full normalisation with Israel, Saudi Arabia seeks security guarantees from the United States, increased arms sales and support for a civilian nuclear program that would include uranium enrichment. But, a closer US defence cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not well seen in Congress, after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The State Department said Blinken will also discuss with Saudi counterparts the opportunities for regional de-escalation, including in Sudan. The administration credits Saudi Arabia with helping to evacuate stranded American citizens and hosting talks between the warring Sudanese generals.
US officials also need Saudi Arabia’s cooperation to end the war in Yemen where the fighting between the Saudi-backed government and Iran-aligned Houthi rebels killed more than 150,000 people since 2014.
“What you’ll see on this trip is a vision of the US-Saudi relationship that’s both rooted in our historic mainstays of cooperation in areas like defence and security and counterterrorism,” US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Arabian Peninsula Affairs Daniel Benaim told reporters last week.
On Thursday, Blinken and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, will co-host a ministerial-level meeting of the global coalition against the Islamic State. Blinken will also participate in a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s foreign ministers while he’s in the Saudi capital.
Blinken is also expected to meet with the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
GSPI
