President Biden is planning on a trip to the Middle East, this July between the 13th. And the 16th. was originally going to happen at the end of June, but it was postponed. Now his trip is getting more and more complicated. Things have happened since even the July date was picked. First of all, and this happened quite recently, the head of the European Union’s diplomatic service, announced that they would sponsor in Doha a renewal of the talks between Iran and the United States on the Iranian nuclear deal called JCPOA. Well, that was all well and good, I suppose if they want to talk. But the fact is, Iran has cheated repeatedly on the deal. The International Atomic Energy Agency and arm of the UN reported that it may that Iran had 18 times the amount of uranium that was permitted under the original agreement. Well, the reason this creates a problem for Biden trip is Israel, Saudi Arabia, and a group called the Gulf Cooperation Council, which is who he’s meeting with in Saudi Arabia, all hate the Iran nuclear deal. They see Iran as a threat. One who very well might nuke them. And whereas things had thought a bit between these countries in the United States when the talks broke down, I bet they’re a lot chillier now. In fact, I wonder how often frost arrives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. My suspicion is that is going to be the climate when Biden arrives and tries to talk about Iran. The other thing that’s changed is the Israeli government fell, and new elections are going to be held in October. Now, it’s little bit bizarre for a president to go to a democratic ally in the middle of an election campaign. I mean, who is he supposed to talk to? He could easily alienate the next prime minister if he does the wrong thing. There are two key personalities now. One is the gentleman named Lapid, and the other is the former prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Now, it’s not like Biden is really neutral in this election. He definitely does not want to see Netanyahu returned to power. Netanyahu is a hard liner and was quite blunt in his talk about what the Obama administration and the Biden administration were doing with regard to Iran. So if Biden is going there, you’d think he’d want to make it so that he looked, made it look good for the current guy, Lockheed. Well, that’s just not happening. Not only is the nuclear deal with Iran coming back on, but he is going to see about Mahmoud Abbas, who’s the leader of the Palestinians. And the statement on why he’s seeing is all about a so called two state solution, where the Palestinians and the Israelis will be on equal footing. Well, history hasn’t been kind to what happens in those circumstances. Generally, the Palestinians end up attacking Israel. But regardless, it’s definitely not something that’s going to make the current government popular. Netanyahu is favored. He has 59 of the current delegates, members of the Knesset, excuse me. Where as Lapid running was 55 and the latest polls and the balance is being held by an Arab party. Probably Netanyahu is going to win comfortably and bring a lot of people who are now with the current government in with him, they are ideological simpatico with Dania, who they just don’t like him personally. He’s a pretty rough customer. Finally, the President is going to go to Saudi Arabia. Well, here’s the problem. During the campaign he called Saudi Arabia and its de facto head, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, otherwise known as MBs. He called them pariahs. That’s what he was going to do is make them pariahs. Well, that’s not a nice thing to say about someone you’re going to go visit. So he kind of fudged it over and said, Well, his views haven’t changed. But as President he has to go and promote peace. The problem is pieces do We just Well, during the previous administration, something called the Abraham accords were signed, which set up relations for the first time in history between Israel and the Sunni states. And relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel got even closer when President Biden came to office and restarted talks with Iran. They’re likely to be closer now as well with the talks restarted. So why is the President going? Well, some people talk about oil, but I doubt he’s going to walk away with any oil given everything that’s happening, and there’s not that much left anyway. So I guess what we’re left with is a photo op. Well, on this one, I just hope that everyone’s smiling when the photo is taken.
