In preparation for receiving Biden, are the region’s papers arranged?
By Counselor / Osama Saad
Recently, the media has extensively covered the news of the Gulf reconciliation that precedes the holding of the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Al-Ula. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait stated, Ahmed Nasser Al-Sabah, In a statement on television: Saudi Arabia and Qatar have agreed, based on a proposal by the Emir of Kuwait, to reopen the airspace and land and sea borders between the two countries. Starting from “Monday evening”.
This televised statement was followed by a statement from the Qatari Amiri Diwan announcing that the Emir of Qatar headed his country’s delegation to attend the summit. This means that the Gulf crisis, which lasted about four years, is on its way to being resolved in the coming days permanently. And the end of the portfolio of the Gulf conflict, which lasted almost throughout the Trump administration.
Another remarkable scene that happened recently was the exit of Mr. Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas, in a televised speech broadcast by Al-Aqsa satellite channel, in which he announced that Hamas had confirmed its readiness to hold Palestinian legislative (parliamentary) and presidential elections. The National Council (PLO parliament) is respectively guaranteed by Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and Russia.
This resolves the knot (elections) that have stopped the process of Palestinian reconciliation since the conference of the secretaries-general of the Palestinian factions, which resulted in a program that prevailed in stalemate throughout the previous period. If it were done, it would mean arranging the Palestinian situation in preparation for engaging in a political process based on President Biden’s vision that differs in its details from Trump’s failed plan (the deal of the century).
There is also a clear and unmistakable move in the Libyan file and important steps to end the years-long conflict between the Libyan east and west. Its continuation was in large part the result of the continued Gulf-Gulf dispute, Which in turn made the Arab world polarized sharply between the axes of normalization and resistance. There is no doubt that the Arab-Arab reconciliation processes taking place in the region will inevitably affect the bloodiest conflict in the region, the war in Yemen.
Everything that has happened and will happen in the region in the coming days indicates that there are papers that are urgently arranged to pave the way for the new Biden administration and at its behest, as it is only days away from receiving its mission in order to implement its vision in the Middle East in particular and the world in general in a calm atmosphere, Biden apparently wants to sit at his presidential desk in the White House clean of all the chaos caused by his predecessor, who until the last minute is still trying to put more mines in the way of the next Biden administration.
In an attempt to jam its program, part of which may be a natural extension of the Obama administration’s program, Throughout his tenure, Trump has worked to destroy all his achievements, from the relationship with China to the Iran nuclear deal, and not ending with the vision of a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Zionist conflict.
The steps taken by the Biden administration also indicate that the new US administration seeks to restore the direct role of the United States in the region after Trump tried during his term to withdraw from it and leave the field (for small players) to carry out some tasks that meet US interests away from direct intervention that has been going on for decades. There is no doubt that this active move by the Biden administration in the Middle East files even before officially assuming its duties, It foreshadows Biden’s statesmanship gained through many years of political and diplomatic work, most recently as vice president in the Obama administration.
It also seems that Biden comes to the region armed with his own vision to address Middle East issues in a way that does not affect the position of the (advanced) occupation state in the region and the normalization processes it has achieved with a number of Arab countries and will try hard to progress in them. Let his administration devote itself to addressing issues that have become urgent in a way that cannot be publicly tolerated, such as the relationship between the United States and China and solving the problems that the Trump administration has exploded. Especially in the areas of trade.
This had an impact on the entire global economy, It led the two powers to fight a trade war – the fiercest – that divided the world into two parts, which the Secretary-General of the United Nations described in 2019 as a “big crack.” When he spoke of “a planet divided into two parts, Its two largest economic powers extend their influence over two separate competing worlds. Each has its own dominant currency, commercial and financial laws, its own internet, artificial intelligence, and its own geopolitical and military strategies in a win-win game.”
The Biden administration will also seek, by calming the region, to devote itself to finding an effective treatment for the Iranian nuclear file, which Trump also blew up and put the entire region on the crater of a volcano that is about to explode. But all this does not prevent Trump from detonating a lightning strike in his last hours that may lead the region to a situation that only God knows. Especially since the region has reached a state of tension, and ready to explode at any moment, Will Biden’s plan proceed peacefully? Or does Trump have a card he hasn’t thrown yet?