Is Biden's Visit to Saudi For Israel or Oil?

ALBAWABA - Yes, and finally, US President Joe Biden is coming to the Middle East. Dates have been set according to the Lebanese Annahar quoting the American CNBC network.

The daily added he will be coming on the 15-16 July. He will be first meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Ben Salman and then meeting with the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council who are meeting in the Saudi capital.  

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre put it this way. "This would be an opportunity for the President to engage with leaders from across the Middle East region."

Much speculation surrounded his visit with many on the social media uttering different views. The first is he will initially be coming to Israel where he will be meeting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and no doubt make a detour to Ramallah. 

Then he will make his way to Saudi Arabia that is seen, to put it mildly controversial because of his previous stance on Saudi human rights record and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi who was reportedly killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

Aside from that there are other speculations that Biden wants to mend fences with Saudi Arabia because of the ongoing Ukraine war, western sanction on Russia with Moscow squeezing the tap on gas and energy supplies and with the most to be effected being Europe.  

Jean-Pierre defended any potential trip the president may make to Saudi Arabia as being about more than just getting the Kingdom to produce more oil amid record-breaking gas prices, saying to "view engagement with Saudi Arabia on energy security, as asking for oil is simply wrong, and a misunderstanding of both the complexity of that issue and our multifaceted discussions with the Saudis."

"That said Saudi Arabia is the chair as you know of OPEC plus, and its largest exporter. Of course, we discuss energy with Saudi government as we do with oil producers around the world, and we welcome its leadership in achieving a consensus amongst the group members last week," she added as reported by the Anadolu Turkish news agency.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail is reporting on the expected visit and not mincing words saying he trip comes as gas prices in the US continue to surge, a key domestic issue Biden hopes to tackle as midterm elections loom and as the national average gas price officially reached $5 a gallon for the first time in American history. 

The London daily adds that Saudi Arabia is the world's largest producer of oil, and as a key member of OPEC plays a large part in setting oil prices worldwide. 

Aside from this however the Daily Mail reports that Biden was also quoted as saying that another of his goals was to repair the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia - which does does not currently recognize the U.S. ally's existence. 

And that would indeed be an opportunity to pressure the Saudis on Israeli normalization for two of the countries meeting there - Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates - have already full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state established under the Abraham Accords in the late 2020.