Joe Biden wings out to shore up front against Tehran

The US President will arrive in Israel overnight Wednesday to try to bolster a Middle East alliance against Iran.

Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

President Joe Biden will arrive in Israel overnight Wednesday to try to bolster a Middle East alliance against Iran amid concerns that it is sending armed drones to help Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said US intelligence believes that Iran will provide Vladimir Putin’s army with several hundred drones that were originally intended to help rebels in Yemen to fight the Saudi-backed government there. He told a White House briefing: “Iran is preparing to train Russian ­forces to use these UAVs”.

Mr Biden, who is hoping to boost relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, will fly on to Jeddah after two days, but he has been condemned by his fellow Democrats at home for his decision to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman there, along with his father, King Salman. He needs Saudi Arabia to keep pumping oil to help to reverse soaring petrol prices in the US, an issue that has helped to drop his approval ratings to a disastrous low.

Oil production targets are governed by an agreement reached among the members of OPEC Plus, a cartel that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia. That agreement expires in September.

Mr Biden vowed on his election campaign to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” for the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, but has been forced into a U-turn by energy price rises, the Ukraine war and a failure to rekindle the nuclear deal with Iran.

Mr Sullivan justified the rapprochement, saying: “Our diplomacy with Saudi Arabia is now delivering results, including a truce in Yemen, a more integrated Gulf Co-operation Council, progress on energy security, and security co-operation against threats from Iran.”

Mr Putin will fly to Tehran next week to hold talks with President Ebrahim Raisi, and will be joined by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey; a NATO member that has attempted to broker a ceasefire to the Ukraine conflict but has also supplied armed drones for Kyiv’s forces.

Iran expressed initial ambiguity about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the two countries’ co-operation in Syria, but it firmly blamed the expansion of NATO for the war, and has hardened its position since.

The extent to which its domestic drone program can help Russia is unclear but it has supplied drones, technology and training to Hezbollah in Lebanon and, more significantly, the Houthi rebels fighting a civil war in Yemen. Attack drones used either by the Houthis or Iran’s Revolutionary Guard have also inflicted grave damage inside Saudi Arabia.

Israel’s success in destroying Iranian drones launched directly by the Revolutionary Guard or by Hezbollah adds a new element to Biden’s visit. Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said on Monday he would update Mr Biden on talks centred on building a counter-Iran alliance in the region. That builds on the decision by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco to drop the Arab boycott of Israel, following Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, in agreeing diplomatic recognition. The Abraham Accords were negotiated by Donald Trump, but were fiercely opposed by Palestinian factions.

The Biden administration was also lukewarm to the shift, but has in the end built on it, overseeing reconciliation between other feuding western partners, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey, and Egypt and Qatar.

Mr Biden will meet Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid as well as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the start of his four-day tour. However, no significant announcements on key Palestinian demands such as the reopening of the US consulate in East Jerusalem are expected, let alone initiatives on the “two-state solution”; the creation of a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Mr Putin’s trip to Tehran, set for next Tuesday, will be only the second time he has left his country since the start of the invasion, following a visit to Tajikistan late last month.

The Times