The United States paved the way for China to broker a Middle East peace deal by ostracizing Saudi Arabia, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner.
The Saudis are restoring ties with Iran for the first time in seven years at a time when much of the Western world has suffocated Iran economically over its nuclear weapons efforts and human rights abuses male.
“It’s definitely a failure of the Biden administration,” Turner, R-Ohio, told DailyMail.com in an interview, accusing the president of increasingly dividing the United States and Saudi Arabia.
A new China-brokered peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia is the result of a “failure” on the part of the United States, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner ( R-Ohio)
The two regional powers reached an agreement on Friday to restore relations and reopen diplomatic missions in a surprise announcement, brokered by Beijing, which signaled China’s tightening grip on the region.
“The Biden administration came in and immediately started criticizing and attacking our ally Saudi Arabia,” he said. “They felt vulnerable and not supported militarily by the United States.”
US-Saudi relations have been on the decline since Biden took office. It started during the 2020 presidential campaign when Biden pledged to treat the kingdom as a “pariah” after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In October, the Biden administration said it would “reassess” its relationship with the Saudis, and there would be “consequences” after OPEC+ cut oil production just before the U.S. mid-term elections. mandate.
The Intel chairman called Saudi Arabia a “powerful ally” and called Iran “a regime that is trying to destabilize the entire Middle East and attack its neighbours.”
“I am very concerned about this deal and what it could mean, both for the Middle East – for Chinese influence with Saudi Arabia – and for the future of our allies.”
The deal aims to calm nearly a decade-long violence in Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels are battling the Saudi-backed government. Washington officials are “skeptical” that Iran will keep its end of the bargain and cut off arms supplies to Houthi fighters.
It seems unlikely that the pact will do anything to slow Iran’s buildup to a nuclear weapon or put any sort of nuclear deal back on the table.
The deal came after five days of secret talks in Beijing, and China’s role as a broker raises the question of whether it has now supplanted the United States for influence in the region.
Saudi Arabia and Iran reached an agreement on Friday to restore ties and reopen diplomatic missions in a surprise announcement, brokered by Beijing, that signaled China’s tightening grip on the region.
Human rights campaigners have been outraged after President Joe Biden greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
A US intelligence report concluded that the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Khashoggi’s murder, but no direct action was taken.
Turner said the Biden administration was not taking the growing nuclear capabilities of adversaries around the world seriously enough, noting that Russia had suspended the New START treaty and received “no response from the Biden administration.”
The nuclear arms control treaty, signed in 2010, was the last remaining nuclear treaty between the United States and Russia and limited each nation’s nuclear warheads and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“We must invest in modernizing our nuclear weapons capabilities and invest significantly in missile defense capabilities. Russia’s nuclear threat and China’s growing investment in its nuclear weapons – which could triple kinetic weapons in the next five years – in addition to what North Korea and Iran are doing, is a serious threat to the United States,” Turner said.
“The Biden administration just seems to dismiss it as requiring no attention for our strategic planning.”
Still, the Intel chairman praised Biden for quickly declassifying information related to Russia’s war with Ukraine, and said he hoped the declassification of US information showing China was considering donating weapons to Russia would prevent them from doing so.
“We have seen that the declassification of information regarding Russia has had an impact on their strategy and what they will do in the future.” I hope that by declassifying reports that China was considering giving weapons to Russia, they will reconsider and refuse to do so.
He said there would be “very strong consequences” from NATO and the United States if China decided to send weapons to Russia, but said the implications for Ukraine could be disastrous.
“The problem with Chinese weapons in Russian hands is that they are an exhaustible source of weapons for Russia, where Russia is short of certain military capabilities,” Turner said.
“With Chinese support and weapon systems, they can continue as long as the Russian people are ready to bear the casualties and losses caused by Putin’s war.”
Despite the Kremlin’s demands for weapons, China has so far only provided Russia with non-lethal aid – such as helmets and bulletproof vests – but has taken advantage of cheap Russian oil that none no other country will buy under Western sanctions.
It has been more than a year since Russia launched its brutal invasion, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to call on the United States and its allies to provide more long-range weapons and ammunition, describing the war of Ukraine as protecting all of Europe from Russian aggression.
Republicans disagree on whether the United States should continue to fund Ukraine’s war efforts without a clear path to ending the conflict. The United States has sent some $113 billion in lethal, non-lethal and economic aid since the February 2022 invasion.
