President Biden’s visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia, scheduled for mid-July, is one of those things officials think must go right. The visits emphasize both nations’ respective regional power and influence, and Biden’s support for various positions of both.
It was agreed among officials from Israel, Saudi Arabia, and several affiliated Arab states to make a show of “tight cooperation” for the next couple of weeks, to avoid any dispute that might mar Biden’s visit.
That’s important for the US, which has invested heavily in Israel having a rapprochement with a handful of carefully selected Sunni Arab states. For Biden, the visit is at least in part a victory lap for that.
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