Israel to urge Biden administration to limit criticism of Saudi Arabia, UAE: Report

Senior Israeli military officials say the Tel Aviv regime plans to lobby the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden to adopt a relaxed stance on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, and limit criticism of them over human rights violations and the ongoing war in Yemen​​​​, a report says.

Axios news website reported that Israel sees its security and intelligence relationships with the three countries as central to its strategy to counter Iranian influence in the region.

The report added that Israeli authorities are concerned about the incoming Biden administration’s return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and a decision to cool relations with Washington’s Arab partners.

Israeli officials intend to warn Biden's team that a crisis in relations with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt could push those countries away from the US, and could lead them to pivot towards Russia and China.

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“We were very close to losing Egypt several years ago and our message to the Biden administration will be: 'Take it slow, dramatic changes took place, don’t come with predispositions and don’t harm relations with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE,'" a top Israeli official told Axios.

Israeli officials also plan to tell Biden that the regime’s recent normalization deals with the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco should be prioritized over rights concerns, the Times of Israel online newspaper reported.

The Israeli official claimed the normalization agreements have helped encourage Saudi Arabia and Egypt to improve human rights in their countries.

While Israel has official relations with Egypt and more recently with the UAE, it has no official ties with Saudi Arabia.

Analysts suggest Biden’s administration could end the near-unconditional support that Riyadh has enjoyed over the years.

“Under a Biden-Harris administration, we will reassess our relationship with the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia], end US support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and make sure America does not check its values at the door to sell arms or buy oil,” Biden said during a presidential rally in October.

During the Trump Administration and with overt its overt support for Saudi Arabia, the regime continued its devastating war on Yemen and pressed ahead with its deadly crackdown on dissent at home and abroad, including the assassination of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018.

Outgoing US President Donald Trump has bragged that he protected Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) after Khashoggi’s killing. Many Democrats, on the other hand, have called for Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader to be held accountable.

Moreover, US legislators are calling on Biden to reverse the Trump administration’s decision to label Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement a “foreign terrorist organization”, slamming it as “short-sighted” and “a death sentence” for millions of people already grappling with years of Saudi aggression and tight blockade.

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House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s decision to blacklist Ansarullah on January 19 — one day before the inauguration of Biden, “endangers the lives of the Yemeni people.”

“The Trump Administration has yet to learn that they can’t sanction their way out of a civil war,” Meeks said in a statement on Monday. Under US law, Congress has seven days to review and reject a designation of a terrorist group.

Washington’s decision has also drawn criticism from the United Nations and international aid groups.

Yemen’s popular Ansarullah movement has condemned the move as well, saying it reserves the right to respond.

Saudi Arabia has been leading a war on Yemen since March 2015, in hopes of reinstating former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and destroying the popular Houthi movement.

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The war, which the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the impoverished Arab country over the last nearly six years.

The popular Houthi Ansarullah movement, backed by armed forces, has been defending Yemen against the Saudi-led alliance, preventing the aggressors from fulfilling the objectives of the atrocious war.

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