As Joe Biden was preparing to wind up his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories and head to Saudi Arabia, I spent a few moments discussing on CNN’s Newsroom just what might be the consequences…elaborating on my Andelman Unleashed column from yesterday:
JIM SCIUTTO: President Biden is in Israel meeting now with the Israeli president, Isaac Hertzog, as well as children, waiving US and Israeli flags. Now to discuss the President's visit to the Middle East is New York Times, former foreign correspondent and CNN Opinion contributor David Andelman. David, good to have you here. I wonder if we could look forward to his next stop which is Saudi Arabia. In his press conference this morning, Biden did not commit to raising the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. He did say he would bring up human rights in general. But he also needs Saudi Arabia for oil prices, with oil prices rising. I wonder in your view, is this a hat in hand visit to Saudi Arabia for the US president?
DAVID A. ANDELMAN: As soon as Air Force One sets down in Jeddah, the Saudis have won--the smile, the warm hand shake, even the fist bump, since there's some question as to whether they'll actually embrace--Biden and MBS, Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince who is the person the CIA identified as the actual assassin of Jamal Khashoggi or the person who actually ordered it. It is no longer the Pariah nation that Biden described as during this campaign. It's something that is really extraordinary. The Saudis are setting up yet again to buy an American administration as they have so many administrations before. This is not substantively different than what happened during Trump, even during Obama, all the way back, frankly, to FDR, and I go back, 20 years and in my history with the Kingdom, so I know a little bit what I'm speaking about.
POPPY HARLOW: Yes sir, you certainly do David. That's why I want what you think about the real question: did Biden need to go? Is this not something that Blinken could have achieved or other high level folks around the president? I mean, given all of those, they're not just optics concerns, they're really what are our values concerns? And so do you think it's worth it. Sure, they do.
ANDELMAN: Sure, they are our values. There's also the question of how much do the Saudis really have to give us now? It's interesting, we have some pictures from of French president Emmanuel Macron with President Biden at the G7 summit in Germany last month. He was warning Biden that the Saudis really do not have that much of a bandwidth to raise oil production. They're really almost at their peak levels right now. So how much more can we get out of them in those terms, in keeping our oil prices down? Probably not all that much. Are they in fact going to honor the ceasefire in Yemen, which is supposed to be going on until August 2nd--one of the bloodiest wars that we've had in this century. It's just such a horrific issue that the Saudis are not apparently prepared to give in one at all that. And also, you know, wouldn't moving really substantively toward the other real big ask, which would be recognition of the state of Israel--diplomatic recognition. They might get some, you know, twiddles around the edges, if you will, overflight privileges for El Al or whatever over Saudi territory that such a minor thing. The Saudis have been telling me back to my first visit there, the only way there is going to be a substantive change in relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is if there's a resolution of some sort to the Palestinian issue and that is obviously not on the table any time in the foreseeable. So really I just don't see what do you like to really get out of this and the Saudis are getting quite a lot of this optically, if nothing else. And optics are very important in this kind of relationship.
HARLOW: No question about it, David Andelman. I'm going to have to cut it a little bit short. We're up against top of the hour. We appreciate your expertise as always, thank you.
Parsing Biden's Visit to Saudi Arabia