Stakes are high as Biden visits Mideast

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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Former President Donald Trump's first international trip was to Saudi Arabia. The kingdom seems about the last place the current president wants to go.

Still, Joe Biden, who notably delayed even reaching out to Mideast leaders after his election, will leave on Wednesday for a visit to Israel and then, in a historic first, fly directly to Saudi Arabia, reflecting the regional political evolutions that have taken place in just a few years.

Even though it's Biden's first trip to Israel as president, he's no stranger to the country, and in fact a friend. But he'll visit a nation where domestic dynamics overshadow international ones; the collapse of an unlikely (and ultimately unwieldy) coalition government has triggered Israel's fifth national election in three years. The new interim prime minister, Yair Lapid, will lead the official visit. But also in the picture will be Lapid's coalition partner, former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, and their common opponent, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

During a Monday panel discussion, Robert Satloff, the Washington Institute of Near East Policy executive director, said the president will focus on four key relationships: U.S.-Israel, U.S.-Palestine, U.S.-Saudi Arabia and U.S.-Arab world.

Accordingly, Biden will also visit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. But while progress on Israeli-Palestinian relations is always essential for any U.S. president, no breakthroughs are expected — especially because Israel's looming fall election makes leaders even more risk-averse.

But Iran continues destabilizing the region — and the world. On Monday, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan indicated that Tehran was set to supply Moscow with armed drones for its war in Ukraine. Within the region, Iran's malign intent toward many Sunni nations and expansionist activities in majority Shiite ones have accelerated closer cooperation between Israel and some Gulf countries.

Formally, in the case of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, due in part to the Abraham Accords, the Trump administration's signature foreign-policy achievement. And informally with Saudi Arabia, which will not move to join the accords during Biden's visit but is leaning in that direction. Biden will encourage that movement and wants to go beyond regional "stabilization" and accelerate "integration," Dennis Ross, a former State Department diplomat who is now a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said during Monday's event.

That's why he's visiting Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (commonly referred to as MBS), bears responsibility for the kidnapping and killing of Saudi dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The brazen brutality of Khashoggi's killing in an Istanbul consulate shocked the conscience of countries that profess a commitment to human rights, especially the United States.

During the presidential campaign, Biden pledged to make MBS a "pariah." But now, "as president," he wrote in a Washington Post commentary published Monday, "it is my job to keep our country strong and secure. We must counter Russia's aggression, put ourselves in the best possible position to outcompete China, and work for greater stability in a consequential region. To do these things, we have to engage directly with countries that can impact those outcomes."

Biden will undoubtedly push for expanded energy production from the kingdom to alleviate some of the supplies depleted or disallowed by necessary sanctions on Russia for its war in Ukraine. But security issues will pervade the visit, which Israel supports, a senior Israeli official said in a background briefing with an editorial writer on Tuesday.