When Donald Trump had the Abraham Accords signed, it was clearly the most significant foreign policy achievement of his administration, even if Democrats and the media ignored it.
All that work now appears to be for nothing, as Saudi Arabia has just reversed its position.
Talking Points…
- The Abraham Accords
- Saudi Arabia reversal
- Analysis
This was a bilateral agreement signed on September 15, 2020, between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain. After these agreements were signed, it was believed that more deals would follow. It also seemed like Saudi Arabia would eventually get on board after Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah suggested that it was time for Israel to be treated like other Middle Eastern countries. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia agreed, and Bahrain later signed the Abraham Accords.
Since those accords were signed, there has been talk of an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations. A deal was in negotiations between the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to make this happen, even though Saudi Arabia has issues with Israel’s resistance to a two-state solution with Palestine.
Joe Biden has had no big foreign policy wins of note, so he hoped this would be the one. This had Biden burning both sides of the candle. He was publicly supporting Israel while defending Palestine and recommending a two-state solution to pacify the left. The house of cards, however, just collapsed.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) just poured water on Biden’s foreign policy win. On Wednesday, he made it clear that there would be no “normalization” of relations with Israel unless Israel agrees to a two-state solution. He has aligned his country solidly behind Palestine, which will not bode well for Saudi-US relations if Trump wins the election.
The Crown Prince stated:
“The kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we affirm that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”
This is a non-starter for Israel, as has been addressed many times by Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel firmly believes that a Palestinian state would mean the destruction of Israel, so there is no give on this. He recently confirmed this, stating:
“My insistence is what has prevented — over the years — the establishment of a Palestinian state that would have constituted an existential danger to Israel.
“As long as I am prime minister, I will continue to strongly insist on this.”
As I mentioned above, Joe Biden really did not have a big foreign policy win during his time in office. This deal would have been a legacy deal for him, but now it is just one more in a long line of failures for Biden on foreign policy. Biden does not have the courage to stand up to Saudi Arabia, and the fact that he is killing our oil production makes this country more dependent than ever on Middle Eastern oil, so don‘t expect MBS to cave anytime soon, son.
However, I will go out on a limb and say that if Trump wins this election and makes America energy independent again, MBS might soften up his hardline stance on this issue.
