Biden walks a political and diplomatic tightrope in Saudi Arabia

US President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Jerusalem, July 14, 2022.

(CNN)President Joe Biden has set himself an extreme test of statesmanship and political dexterity, not to mention the core principles of his own foreign policy, with a trip to Saudi Arabia that is causing soul searching over US ties with a vital but brutal Middle East ally.

Biden arrives Friday balancing national interests and US values. His desire for his hosts to pump more oil to ease gas prices and inflation in the US is colliding with his previous condemnation of the ruthless rule of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

If the President leaves without securing a significant injection of crude into the global market, he risks more political damage at home, where Americans are taking out their frustrations with high gas prices on him. But if he succeeds, he will further anger human rights advocates who accuse him of ditching US principles for short-term political gain. In either case, Biden must find a way to justify his opening to the Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia's erratic and repressive de facto leader who was blamed by US intelligence for ordering the murder and dismembering of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a US resident and Saudi dissident.

Biden will meet with Saudi Crown Prince without King present as he stops short of committing to raising Khashoggi murder

Biden will meet with Saudi Crown Prince without King present as he stops short of committing to raising Khashoggi murder

Biden has, after all, put democracy promotion at the center of his foreign policy agenda while bin Salman has presided over the execution of political prisoners, launched a vicious war in Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians, and was accused of detaining Lebanon's prime minister in another regional power play.

"The reason that I'm going to Saudi Arabia ... is to promote US interest ... in a way that I think we have an opportunity to reassert what I think we've made a mistake of walking away from: our influence in the Middle East," Biden said Thursday.

The President is ostensibly going to Saudi Arabia to take part in a regional conference also with leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. He is seeking to cement recent progress in a rapprochement between some of these nations and Israel where he spent the last few days. He's also keen to build support for his drive to use diplomacy to revive a 2015 nuclear deal before Tehran enriches sufficient uranium for a nuclear bomb -- a diplomatic process about which both the Israelis and the Saudis are skeptical.

And Biden has a strong interest in reasserting America's leadership as its great power rivals Russia and China seek new inroads in the region. So the President's claim, that it is now in US interests to reengage with Saudi Arabia after the 2018 Khashoggi killing severely strained relations, does have merit -- even though he's taking heat from progressives in his party for doing so.

Balancing act

With his visit, the President, who vowed to make the Saudis a "pariah" on the campaign trail in 2020, is experiencing a rite common to commanders-in-chief who have to sometimes dilute their own political interests for a wider strategic goal.

"How do we balance our interests in the free flow of oil at reasonable prices with our values," asked former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk on "Amanpour" on CNN International this week, encapsulating Biden's dilemma.

"Somehow, the President has to walk the line. We need the Saudis to increase oil production to bring the price down because that is having a terrible impact on inflation. On the other hand, we need to take a clear stand against the way (Mohammed bin Salman) treats some of his people some of the time."

The distasteful aspect of this trip is that there is no way for Biden to accomplish his goals without elevating bin Salman, who is the dominant figure in the Saudi royal family and will use the visit of an American President to rehabilitate himself globally and to send a message to other strongman-ruled states that there is no longterm price for acting in a way that offends American values. He may, therefore, not feel especially beholden to offer wide-ranging concessions.

Biden says Trump made 'gigantic mistake' withdrawing US from Iran nuclear deal

Biden says Trump made 'gigantic mistake' withdrawing US from Iran nuclear deal

The White House confirmed for the first time late Thursday that Biden will meet with the Crown Prince without King Salman, who will depart after about 30 minutes of the bilateral meetings, which was expected because of his health. The administration's shifting positions on whether and how Biden would interact with the Crown Prince in recent weeks have appeared to whip up even more controversy about the visit. In retrospect, an earlier announcement and a strong statement about what the President would do and say might have eased some of the political pressure.

Still, Biden argued in a recent Washington Post op-ed that the broader aspiration of using his trip to promote regional stability was important since it could prevent the conflicts that led to US troops having to fight and die in the Middle East for decades. Biden -- whose worldview was shaped by his own experiences and that of his late son Beau, who served in Iraq -- has put avoiding new foreign wars at the center of his presidency. This is also one reason why he is committed to trying to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which could head off a fateful decision on whether he might use military force to prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon.