Biden’s MidEast swing shows US hypocrisy on human rights

WHEN it comes to its core business interests and quest for global hegemony, US Imperialism is ready to shake hands with the ‘Devil’ himself while paying lip-service to the issue of human rights and press freedom.

This was the clear message to the world by US President Joe Biden who respectively visited Israel, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia last week where he refused to meet with the family of slain Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh– who was killed by the Israeli military last May 11, 2022– and warmly greeted with a fist bump the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia– who has been identified by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as behind the murder of another journalist inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey in 2018.

Although it would be the tenth time that Biden visited Israel last July 13, 2022, it was his first visit as President of the United States.

Reports by the Western media said Biden was in Israel to “advance Israel’s integration” in the Middle East and further strengthen the bilateral ties between the two countries.

The reports also said that US Imperialism and Israel would be at the forefront of a “global coalition” to destabilize the sovereign Islamic Republic of Iran and in frustrating Iran’s nuclear program, as confirmed by Israel Prime Minister Yair Lapid during his joint press conference with Biden on the same day.

Iran was first sanctioned by the United States in 1979, in the aftermath of the seizure of the US Embassy in Teheran that year by Iranians fed up with US Imperialism’s continued interference in its internal affairs and America’s propping up of the brutal regime of Iran’s last monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

US Imperialism has gloated the fact that it was behind the regime change in Iran in 1953 by initiating a coup d’ etat against the elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, for nationalizing Iran’s oil industry. The US then installed Pahlavi as its surrogate leader in Iran.

Although the sanctions against Iran was lifted in 1981, with the release of US Embassy officials and staffers taken in 1979, US Imperialism again initiated several Western economic sanctions against Iran between 1984 and 2018, for its alleged support of terrorism and in order to derail its nuclear program. The sanctions remain effective to this day.

On a brief visit to Lebanon (Palestine) to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, where he also pledged a total of $300 million in “humanitarian assistance,” Biden declined to meet with the family of Akleh but merely issued a statement extolling her works as a journalist of Palestinian descent, saying her death is an “enormous loss to the essential work of sharing with the world the story of the Palestinian people.”

Although Biden said he would continue to insist on “a full and transparent accounting of her death,” the US has already officially absolved the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) of any culpability.

A statement released by the US State Department last July 4, 2022 claims Akleh’s death as “the result of tragic circumstances” during an Israeli military operation at a Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin.

Biden’s aid of $300 million to the Palestinians may also dwindle further as it is subject to approval by the US Congress where Israeli lobby groups are very strong.

The financial aid to Palestine is also in contrast to Biden’s fresh commitment of $1 billion for Israel’s military program, including its ‘Iron Dome’ defense system.

But the most controversial visit—and fruitless as it turned out—made by Biden was in Saudi Arabia where he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MbS) beginning on July 15, 2022.

Salman was positively identified by the CIA as behind the murder—and dismemberment– of journalist Jamal Kashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post covering the Middle East.

Kashoggi was lured into entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2, 2018 and was never heard of since then.

During the presidential campaign, Biden had vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah” state over its human rights records. Biden’s “shaking hands” with the Crown Prince proved this to be just another campaign promise from a veteran US politician.

On being taken to task by the media covering his itinerary, Biden described as a “silly question” a reporter asking him of the Saudi’s human rights records and his ‘fist bump’ with Salman.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan Al Saud, revealing details of Biden’s discussions with the Crown Prince said Biden got a stinging rebuke after he tried to press home the case of Kashoggi.

Salman reportedly said the killing of Kashoggi was a “mistake” and then rebuke Biden by pointing to the US’ “mistakes” in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More wars; oil to remain expensive

Ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, Biden said he is making the trip because a “more secure and integrated Middle East benefits Americans in many ways.”

“Its waterways are essential to global trade and the supply chains we rely on. Its energy resources are vital for mitigating the impact on global supplies of Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

But on the crucial issue of telling Saudi Arabia to hike its oil production to ease global oil prices, Biden got nothing as the Kingdom also refused to join the sanctions against Russia.

Saudi Arabia, according to other Western media accounts, has even increased its purchases of “discounted” Russian oil for its domestic requirement while cashing in on the high price of crude oil in the world market at current supply levels.

Continued rise in global oil prices mainly due to the US-led sanctions against Russia has already increased the domestic price of gasoline products in the United States that also resulted to a very high 9.06 percent inflation rate as of June 2022, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, a figure nearly the same since 1978.

Nevertheless, Biden was able to unite the Arabs into another military adventure against Iran by raising the bogey of Iran being a “threat” to the peace in the Middle East, as reported by the Washington Times last July 17, 2022 (see link to the article here).