President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday that the US would “continue to lead” in the Middle East, in order to stop Russia and China from filling a “vacuum.” Beijing took a dim view of his words, responding that only the “people in the Middle East are the masters of the Middle East.”
Biden’s first trip to the Middle East as president began in Israel this week, where he signed a joint declaration with Prime Minister Yair Lapid, guaranteeing continued US support and affirming “never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
In a press conference with Lapid after the signing, Biden suggested that his trip – which takes him to Saudi Arabia on Friday – marks a resurgence in US influence in the region.
Biden told reporters that the US under Donald Trump “made a mistake of walking away from our influence in the Middle East,” and that his planned meeting in Jeddah with the heads of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) would give him the chance to “promote US interests” with these nine Arab states.