JEDDAH: Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia on Friday is aimed at reasserting America’s influence in the region after a period of neglect, the US president said on Thursday.
Biden said Washington’s strategic pivot away from the Middle East had been a mistake, and his trip to the Kingdom would “promote US interests.”
He said: “There are so many issues at stake, I want to make clear that we can continue to lead in the region and not create a vacuum, a vacuum that is filled by China and/or Russia.”
The president will arrive in Jeddah on Friday after flying directly from Tel Aviv, having capped his visit to Israel on Thursday with a joint pledge to deny Iran access to nuclear weapons.
Biden reaffirmed US support for Israel’s regional military edge and ability “to defend itself by itself.” An official statement said: “The US stresses that integral to this pledge is the commitment never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that it is prepared to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome.”
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Biden said preventing a nuclear Iran was “a vital security interest for Israel and the US and, I would add, for the rest of the world as well.” The pledge came a day after he told a local TV station that he was open to “last resort” use of force against Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Lapid said such a threat was a way of averting open conflict. “The only way to stop a nuclear Iran is if Iran knows the free world will use force,” he said.
The US president said the ball was in Iran’s court over stalled talks to revive the 2015 deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program. “We are not going to wait for ever,” he said.
Before flying to Jeddah on Friday, Biden will hold talks in the occupied West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. On Thursday he reaffirmed Washington’s policy of pressing for “a two-state solution for two people, both of whom have deep and ancient roots in this land, living side by side in peace and security.”
A US official said the administration would announce “a significant funding package” for Palestinian hospitals in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, and plans to provide 4G internet access in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
