U.S. President Joe Biden (from left), former Saudi journalist Jamal Kashqj, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. AFP Yonhap News
U.S. President Joe Biden began solving his Middle East policy homework one by one after five weeks in office. The Biden administration concluded on the 26th (local time) the issue of the assassination of a Saudi Arabian journalist that had been left behind since the Trump administration. It was a compromise that the crown prince, who was the supreme authority, was removed from the sanctions while holding the responsibility of the ally Saudi Arabia.
Prior to the provision of carrots to start restoration of the Iran Nuclear Agreement (JCPOA · Comprehensive Joint Action Plan), the bombing of pro-Iranian militias in Syria on the 25th was also whipped. President Biden is the first step in his tenure with a two-sided strategy to solve complex Middle East problems. However, it is difficult to expect results in a short period of time due to the difficulties of decades and the conflicting interests of each country in the Middle East.
US Secretary of State Tony Blincoln is giving a press briefing at the Washington State Department on the 26th. Minister Blincoln stressed that the release of the’Kashukji Report’ was not intended to rupture relations with Saudi Arabia, but to readjust. Washington = AP Yonhap News
US “Prince Saudi Arabia Approves Operation Kashqji”
Jamal Kashqji, who worked as a columnist for the Washington Post (WP) and criticized the Saudi royal family, was brutally murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018. Criticism of the international community has been investigated in Saudi Arabia on a date and sentenced to eight locals in prison. The report on the declassification of the Kashukji assassination, released by the US National Intelligence Service (DNI), is meant to formalize the suspicion that has been raised several times.
The key point of the report is the clarification of the responsibility of Prince Muhammad Binsalman, who has actually ruled Saudi Arabia since 2017, in the Kashukji case. The report stated, “Prince Muhammad saw Kashqji as a threat to the kingdom and widely supported the use of violent means if necessary to silence him.” did. Given that the seven members of the Royal Guard’s Rapid Intervention Force, who guard the Crown Prince, participated in the Kashukji assassination operation, the Crown Prince could not have known the incident.
Excluding the Crown Prince in Saudi assassination liability sanctions
Yet the United States gave the crown prince indulgence. It also introduced a’Kashukji ban’, such as sanctioning the former deputy director of Saudi intelligence and suspending the issuance of 76 US visas, but excluding those at the peak of the assassination order. The New York Times (NYT) of the United States told a senior official that “President Biden decided that the diplomatic burden was too high in the case of direct sanctions against the crown prince.” Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, now 85, is expected to pass the throne to the 35-year-old soon. The United States decided that it would be difficult to implement the Middle East policy while sanctioning the next king of Saudi Arabia, a key ally in the Middle East. The intention is to continue to use the Sunni leader Saudi Arabia to carry out the anti-terrorism war in the Middle East and to check Shi’ite Iran.
Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Kashqji (right) enters the building of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018. Kashqji is believed to have been murdered here by Saudis. Istanbul=EPA Yonhap News
“Human rights-oriented Biden, condoning criminal activity”
However, some point out that the foreign policy of the Biden administration has not changed much from the Trump administration. If the Trump administration has been selling arms to Saudi Arabia under the guise of the release of the Kashqji report, the Biden administration has been overshadowed by the national interests and not properly held accountability.
Some point out that it is a false signal that the Biden administration, which emphasizes human rights, will tolerate criminal acts as long as it helps the US interests. NYT said it was “a decision that could disappoint members of the human rights group and the ruling Democratic Party.”
There is also a possibility that the overall Middle East policy will be twisted. First of all, Iran’s movement is not very serious. On the 25th, it was reported that the cause of the explosion of an Israeli cargo ship off the coast of Oman near Iran was believed to be an attack on Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry rebelled against the bombing of Syria on the 27th, saying, “It will destabilize the military and the region.”
The U.S. has already pushed Saudi Arabia against the sale of weapons for civil war in Yemen, and a Kashqzi report came out. Relations with Israel are also not as dense as the Trump administration. The US is also worried that it will be difficult to find a definite alliance of the US in the Middle East, but if Iran’s opposition intensifies, it will become difficult to control.
Washington= Jeong Won Correspondent [email protected]
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