WASHINGTON (Washington Insider Magazine) – NBC News reported on Friday that President Joe Biden’s scheduled trips to Israel and Saudi Arabia later in the month have been suspended until July.
According to insiders, the White House is now preparing a broader visit to the Middle East following next month.
The Saudi stop has been postponed, according to a foreign diplomat, and the visit to Israel has been postponed as well, according to two US officials. Both trips were likely to be added to Biden’s pre planned trip to Spain and Germany later this month.
The cause for the postponement was unclear at the time. On Friday, the foreign diplomat and 2 officials learnt of the postponed travel plans. The dates, according to US officials, are still in motion and could alter again.
Given the nation’s record on human rights and the president’s previous remarks about the oil-rich state, Biden’s plans to visit Saudi Arabia drew immediate criticism. Following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Biden vowed to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” during his campaign. The CIA decided in 2018 that Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had orchestrated Khashoggi’s murder. The crown prince has refuted having anything to do with his death.
A group of 9/11 victims’ relatives wrote to Biden last week, urging him to discuss concerns of “accountability” regarding purported ties between several 9/11 hijackers and Saudi authorities if he visits the kingdom.
Despite this, Saudi Arabia, a key military and economic partner of the United States, has typically been one of a president’s first foreign trips in the Middle East. Given Saudi Arabia’s central position in several of the administration’s core foreign policy concerns, including Palestinian-Israeli conflicts and the Iran nuclear accord, the Biden office has found it hard to resist working with it.
In the run-up to the midterms, Biden has been exploring measures to assist cut the price of gas and oil. His office is under pressure to do more to slash the price of gas.
NBC News reported on Thursday that Biden was planning a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia later this month, citing 5 people familiar with the situation. Those travel arrangements were never confirmed by the White House. However, officials told NBC News that the Biden office had notified other nations about the visits, and that the State Department and the White House were preparing for them.
