Arabs Warn Biden: We Do Not Want Another Obama (Ed: Too late, Barry's running the show)

by Khaled Abu Toameh

• The Biden administration, some Arab writers have said, "has adopted a policy of "antagonizing allies while appeasing enemies."
• [Syrian journalist Abduljalil] Alsaeid said he believed that former Obama administration officials, who are now part of the Biden administration, are intentionally trying to damage US-Saudi relations.
• "The Obama wing inside the ruling Democratic Party accepts the Iranian regime and turns a blind eye to Iran's terrorism in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon." — Abduljalil Alsaeid, Syrian journalist, Al-Ain, March 2, 2021.
• "President Biden has the right to talk about America's democratic values, but why have these values ​​not been expanded to hold Hezbollah accountable for the recent killing of [anti-Hezbollah Lebanese publisher] Loqman Slim or the slaughter of thousands of thousands of Syrians by pro-Iranian groups?" — Abduljalil Alsaeid, Al-Ain, March 2, 2021.
• The Biden administration was "rewarding Iranian despotism while punishing Saudi Arabia." — Emad El Din Adeeb, a prominent Egyptian businessman and famous political television show host, elsharkonline com, March 3, 2021.
• The Biden administration was dealing harshly with Riyadh "because of one crime, the killing of Khashoggi, while rehabilitating Tehran, which has carried out a million crimes worse than Khashoggi's crime." — Emad El Din Adeeb, al-ain.com, March 3, 2021.
• Adeeb pointed out that Iran was continuing with its human rights violations while Saudi Arabia has in recent years embarked on large-scale reforms.
• According to al-Sawafi, the release of the report on the slain Saudi journalist was a sign that the Biden administration "stands against the aspirations of the Saudi and Gulf people in achieving reform and stability.
• "Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was right when he asserted that the Iranian regime understands only the language of force." — Zuhair Al-Harthi, Saudi columnist and political activist, Al-Arabiya, February 27, 2021
• The last three years of the Obama presidency were "catastrophic in every sense of this word," al-Harthi said. "Will Biden fall into the same trap? Washington's standing declined during the Obama presidency. Will Biden repeat Obama's fatal mistakes? The US dealings at the time with regional issues were a source of ridicule, as Washington delivered Iraq and Afghanistan on a golden platter to Iran and supported the Muslim Brotherhood." — Zuhair Al-Harthi, Al-Arabiya, February 27, 2021.

Prominent Arab political analysts and commentators are dumbfounded that the Biden administration has chosen to appease Iran and Islamists instead of working with Washington's traditional and long-time allies in the Arab world. Pictured: Then Vice President Joe Biden (left) speaks with then Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal (center) at the Riyadh airbase in Saudi Arabia on October 27, 2011. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Prominent Arab political analysts and commentators are dumbfounded that the Biden administration has chosen to appease Iran and Islamists instead of working with Washington's traditional and long-time allies in the Arab world.

In a series of articles published after the release of the US intelligence report on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, many Arab analysts and columnists have warned that the Biden administration was harming US interests in the Middle East.

Some said they saw the decision to release the report as a kind of sequel to the Obama administration's failed policy of meddling in the internal affairs of Arab countries.

He noted that the Saudi authorities had already punished those involved in the 2018 murder of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The Biden administration, some Arab writers have said, "has adopted a policy of "antagonizing allies while appeasing enemies."

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