President Biden’s Middle East policy reflects the worldview of his top foreign policy and national security team, most notably Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, who has been President Biden’s most influential advisor since 2002-2008 (similar to Secretary Baker’s influence on President Bush) when Blinken was the Democratic Staff Director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Other leading members of the team are Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor, William Burns, the CIA Director, and Avril Haines, the Director of National Intelligence. They – like Blinken – played a key role in shaping President Obama’s Middle East policy.

For instance, they were instrumental in carving the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran (JCPOA), which followed the US embrace of Iran’s Ayatollahs (Shiite terrorism), while demoting the stature of the pro-US Saudis, the UAE, and Bahrain.  This has intensified the existential threat to these regimes, injuring the US’ strategic reliability, and driving its traditional Arab allies closer to China and Russia.

In 2009-2012, they supported the ascension to power of Egypt’s anti-Western Muslim Brotherhood (Sunni terrorism), while turning their backs on the pro-US President Mubarak.

They cuddled the Palestinians, pressured Israel, and promoted the establishment of a Palestinian state, disregarding the Palestinian track record, which has made the Palestinians the role model of intra-Arab subversion, terrorism, and ingratitude.

In addition, the Biden team participated in the orchestration of the 2011 US-led military offensive against Qadhafi, which aimed to topple Qadhafi for slaughtering his opponents and squashing human rights. However, the demise (lynching) of Qadhafi transformed Libya into a regional and global platform of Islamic terrorism and ruthless violations of human rights, igniting a series of Libyan civil wars with Russian, Turkish, Egyptian, Emirati, Saudi, Qatari, French, and Italian military involvement.

Photo: Reuters