Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said President Joe Biden has mishandled situations in the Middle East to the point of pushing Saudi Arabia into China’s arms in response to a new comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between Saudi Arabia and China.
“China is eating our box lunch in the Middle East and the administration appears oblivious. This month’s summit between China and Saudi Arabia marks the complete collapse of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The Biden administration has gone out of its way to push countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE from the West and into China’s sphere of influence,” Bacon said in a statement provided to State Newswire. “They have also emboldened Iran by not enforcing sanctions in the hopes of reviving a failed nuclear agreement, to the chagrin of the Saudis and other allies in the region and empowered the Houthis by removing the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation, amid ongoing attacks on Saudi civilians.”
Xi Jinping, president of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), recently met with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, according to a joint statement posted by the Saudi Press Agency.
“The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan accompanied by a persistent promise to ‘pivot’ away from the Middle East to focus elsewhere has left countries in the region to hedge their bets, and I hold the administration responsible for damaging our long-term national security interests in the region,” Bacon said in his statement. “This is what happens when a president allows emotion and outrage to replace a clear-eyed and pragmatic focus on our national interests.”
The two sides discussed continuing to support each other’s core interests and maintaining their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Xi and the Saudi leaders agreed on $30 billion worth of deals and 35 memorandums of understanding, Arab News reported. Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that his country was not distancing itself from the U.S. and other Western allies.
“Saudi Arabia’s main focus is how to grow economically, and through the work with strategic partners we will continue to find ways to enhance bilateral cooperation with all," he said, according to Arab News.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced in a February 2021 press statement that he was removing the designation of Ansarallah, also called the Houthis, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). It was “intended to ensure that relevant U.S. policies do not impede assistance to those already suffering what has been called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
The Trump administration had designated the Houthis as a FTO a month before the Biden administration lifted the designation, PBS reported. The Iranian-backed Houthis were operating in Yemen and had been responsible for multiple cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia, including a strike on a Saudi Arabian airport that damaged commercial aircraft. The Saudis had been leading an effort to unseat the Houthis from Yemen’s capital for more than five years when Biden lifted the FTO designation.
Biden initially avoided deepening engagement with Middle Eastern countries. His stance shifted this summer and he visited the region, possibly because Russia's war in Ukraine gave some leverage to oil-producing countries, while non-oil-producing countries struggled with surging energy and gasoline prices, according to a report from the Middle East Institute.
The State Department website states that the U.S. and Saudi Arabia “enjoy a strong economic relationship.” Saudi Arabia is the third largest source of imported oil to the U.S. and is one of the U.S.’s largest Middle Eastern trade partners. Saudi Arabia is the top foreign military sales customer for the U.S., with more than $100 billion in active sales.
Bacon is a U.S. Air Force veteran and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, according to his website.
