'I’m not going to meet with MBS': How Americans react to Biden's lie following meeting MBS in Jeddah

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US President Joe Biden has faced blistering criticism over his visit to Saudi Arabia because he is the one who promised to make it a "pariah”, and last month, he stressed he is not going to meet with Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS).

However, on July 15, Biden’s warm gesture to MBS, as he exited a limousine, drew wider criticism inside the United States before he attended a meeting that the President earlier claimed would not happen.

“I’m not going to meet with MBS,” Biden said in June. “I’m going to an international meeting, and he’s going to be part of it.” 

Charles Ortel, a US journalist, said, "Policies built on inconsistency are doomed to fail with widespread damage."

"Biden's campaign promises, not simply regarding MBS, are laughable in retrospect," he told Al Mayadeen English in an interview via email.

"It seems as if the Biden Administration demonstrates that America is not a trustworthy ally, let alone a nation that works by example to attain our founding ideals," Ortel added.

Biden gave a friendly fist bump to bin Salman, who human rights groups accuse of gruesome human rights violations in Yemen, and the CIA said he likely ordered the 2018 slaying of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

"How can you trust anyone in the Biden Administration? And, the 'fist bump' lets everyone understand that Biden believes he and his family are above the reach of any challenge or criticism," Ortel said.

Ortel pointed out that by visiting the Kingdom, Biden has failed to make it a "pariah" as he promised, making him lose the support of "masses of Americans."

"Biden has managed to lose support from his base and to trigger masses of Americans who previously were uninterested in politics to become active working to clip his wings," Ortel noted.

A new poll has found that Biden is facing a high level of doubt in his party with 64% of Democrats "would want a candidate other than Biden to seek the nomination in two years."

"The November elections should switch control of the House and possibly the Senate to leaders who will no longer tolerate or fund Biden's assaults upon our Constitution," explained Ortel, adding, "The real question is how much lasting damage he will do in the interim."

During the summit in Jeddah, Biden told nine Arab leaders that the US "will not walk away" from the Middle East. However, Sameera Khan responded to this remark by saying in a tweet that "Biden will run away from the Middle East like the Taliban made him run away from Afghanistan."

Governor of Mecca welcomed Biden

Biden was welcomed at Jeddah airport by Mecca governor Khalid bin Faisal Al Saud, not by Mohammed bin Salman, raising question marks if the US is planning to control Mecca at a time Saudi military officials claim they fight Ansar Allah movement in Yemen to protect Mecca from what they called "Houthis", an allegation Ansar Allah denies.

Ansar Allah and Muslims around the world were angry last week at Saudi Arabia's appointment of Mohammed Al-Isa as a preacher of Arafah during pilgrimage as he is seen as the man leading normalization with the Israeli entity and known for his hatred of true Islamic resistance groups like Ansar Allah, Hezbollah, and Hamas.

"Elites pretending they are foreign policy 'experts' may believe that the U.S. having some influence over that holy and key city is an objective to consider," Ortel told Al Mayadeen English. "But, sensible students of history would reject this view. The US needs to define its true interests carefully, precisely, and consistently."

"Sadly the Biden Administration is not up to that key task," Ortel said.

"It is important to realize that the Biden administration just like the Trump and Obama administrations stand side by side with Saudi Arabia in terms of commitment to protecting the Kingdom from Houthi attacks," Cafiero, a geopolitical analyst, told Al Mayadeen English.

"So it is definitely easy for Biden to assert Washington's commitment to protecting not only Mecca but the rest of Saudi Arabia from possible Houthi attacks in the future."

"Obviously, the truce is in place in Yemen, so by now, the Saudis have been spared from Houthi attacks for a number of months. But there is obviously a risk of attacks restarting in Yemen with Houthi attacks targeting the Kingdom later this year if the truce collapses."

But resuming flights between Saudi Arabia and "Israel" is seen as an American and Israeli attempt to control the annual hajj pilgrimage.

On Saturday, "Israel's" Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Freij said the Saudi decision may "turn the dream into reality" for Muslims like himself, hoping to perform Hajj next year.

"I believe that, in a year, the Muslim Israeli citizen will be able to fly from Ben Gurion (airport near Tel Aviv) to Jeddah, and from there to Mecca to fulfill his pilgrimage duty," Freij told public broadcaster Kan, according to Reuters.

Truces don't resolve war on Yemen

About Yemen, and during his election campaign, Biden said he would “end the sale of material to the Saudis where they’re going in murdering children.”

In a first foreign policy speech at the Department of State in Washington, Biden said he is ending his country's support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen, saying the war “has to end.” However, he pledged to continue US support for Saudi Arabia to defend its sovereignty and territory.

Despite all that, the US is supporting Saudi Arabia's aggression on Yemen where tens of thousands of civilians have been killed during Saudi attacks using US weapons and intelligence sharing.

Instead of ending the war in Yemen as he promised, Biden said later, on July 15, that he agreed with Saudi Arabia to extend the fragile UN-brokered truce in Yemen that will end on August 2.

"These truces don't resolve the war in Yemen, at least they don't do so yet,"  Giorgio Cafiero told Al Mayadeen English. "But they provide Yemenis with badly needed relief following years of gruesome warfare, and the administration sees these truces as important to winding down the conflict," Cafiero added.

"Therefore, any truce extension that Saudi Arabia commits to, the US welcomes very much," Cafiero noted.

Following Biden's remarks, Ansar Allah-led Supreme Political Council in Sanaa issued a statement published by Al-Masirah TV saying that the UN-brokered truce "represented a shocking and disappointing experience that can't be repeated in the future, with constant readiness to strengthen any credible efforts."

"We deplore talking about extending the truce, which the side of aggression did not commit to implementing its terms," the statement added.

Ortel, the journalist, said Biden before this trip has displayed a "stunning level of arrogance combined with incompetence."

"The situation in Yemen has been dire for years and the people of Yemen have been suffering greatly," Ortel told Al Mayadeen English. "Yet, America and western allies are not rushing to stabilize matters as they proclaim they are trying to do in Ukraine."