Four sources with knowledge of the situation informed Axios that President Biden is thinking about having a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman outside of the G20 summit in New Delhi next month.
Biden considers meeting Mohammed bin Salman: Why it’s important The White House has been negotiating with the Saudi government in an effort to reach a mega-deal that may involve U.S. security assurances for Riyadh as well as a normalisation agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel. A meeting between the two leaders might significantly advance those negotiations.
A compromise like that would mark an important turning point in Middle East peace.
But given that many Democrats in Congress have extremely negative opinions of bin Salman, often known as MBS, as a result of the kingdom’s record on human rights and the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Biden would certainly have to get at least some of it through Congress.
Current scenario: American sources previously informed Axios that the administration is striving to conclude its diplomatic initiative with Saudi Arabia before the presidential election campaign fully occupies Biden’s agenda.
There are still a number of unresolved problems, such as a potential defence agreement between Washington and Riyadh and potential American support for a civilian nuclear programme that would involve uranium enrichment on Saudi land.
In the background, discussions about a possible meeting between Biden and MBS during the G20 summit have reportedly taken place between American and Saudi officials for weeks. This was happening even before White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s visit to the kingdom in July, as stated by a knowledgeable individual.
Two other sources familiar with the situation have stated that they can conceive of such a meeting, but a decision has not been reached yet.
There is currently nothing to announce, according to a representative for the White House National Security Council.
Requests for response from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., went unanswered.
The broad strokes:
According to U.S. and Israeli officials, Biden’s Middle East czar Brett McGurk and the president’s senior infrastructure and energy adviser Amos Hochstein met with Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer in Washington last week.
Dermer received an update on the negotiations from McGurk and Hochstein, who are in charge of dealing with Saudi authorities. According to a U.S. official, the current focus of the U.S.-Saudi negotiations is on bilateral matters rather than Israel’s normalisation.
According to a U.S. official, Dermer also met with Secretary of State Tony Blinken and spoke about the Saudi normalisation issue.
A few hours later, Blinken contacted the Saudi foreign minister, but the State Department’s readout of the discussion did not specify whether they raised the issue of normalization.