U.S. President Joe Biden may have come into office as a purported foreign-policy expert, but according to JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin, he has maintained his streak of being wrong on every issue for the last half-century. Tobin pointed out that after a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 that turned into a humiliating rout, Biden has continued to try to appease Iran, strengthening that Islamist regime and alienating allies like Israel, and especially, Saudi Arabia. That’s also given China an opening to become a major player in the Middle East.
Tobin is then joined by Hudson Institute scholar Michael Doran, who analyzed the results of the first round of elections in Turkey. Doran asserted that although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is an Islamist with a long record of antagonism to Israel, it might be for the best if, as expected, he ultimately wins re-election. Doran says it’s a fantasy to think that Turkey is going back to being a secular nation and that Erdoğan is the best option for stability in the region.
He also discussed the importance of ensuring Azerbaijan’s independence from Russia since, as an ally of Israel, it is “the cork in the bottle of Central Asia.”
Doran then turned to the Biden administration’s continued efforts to appease Iran, which have sent the region the signal that the United States “is on the way out of the Middle East.” That not only strengthens Tehran’s conviction that the West won’t thwart its nuclear ambitions but has convinced the Saudis to make a deal with China and Iran. As long as Biden is president, there’s no chance that the Saudis or other Arab nations will join the Abraham Accords.
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