President Joe Biden needs to rebuild America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia so the kingdom again becomes a vital “security partner”, a former US secretary of state has said.
The US president is this month travelling to Saudi Arabia, partly to encourage the world’s biggest oil producers to reduce prices that have spiralled upwards since Russia invaded Ukraine.
But Mike Pompeo, who was secretary of state under Donald Trump, drew attention to previous comments in which Mr Biden had criticised the kingdom.
“For the United States to make them a pariah state is dangerous for the world,” Mr Pompeo told the London-based Policy Exchange think tank yesterday.
"And the reality came and hit the Biden administration in the face and they're going to go and make it better and I hope that they do.
"I hope the president has a very constructive conversation that is useful and productive and delivers good outcomes for the things that matter to all of us this coming winter.”
Mr Biden, who had made the comments after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in 2018, is looking to reset the relationship in a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a trip to the Middle East starting on July 13 in Israel.
Mr Pompeo praised the significant improvement made in links between Israel and the Gulf region since the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020.
“I'm glad President Biden is travelling to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he told an online seminar in London.
Highlighting the changes that have occurred under Crown Prince Mohammed, Mr Pompeo said: “There’s a massive amount of reform taking place in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
"If you're a young woman in Saudi Arabia today, you have a lot more opportunities than you did four or five years ago.”
Mr Biden, who is making his first trip to the Middle East as president, is keen to reassert US security commitments and influence in the region, which his predecessor Mr Trump was regarded as having neglected.
But Mr Pompeo, 58, defended the former US administration’s use of the “maximum pressure” sanction campaign that he claimed forced Iran’s foreign reserves to drop from $96 billion to only $4bn.
He claimed that the partial lifting of sanctions had already seen the Iranian economy grow by 7 per cent, while Tehran was also developing enough uranium for a nuclear bomb.
Mr Pompeo, who suggested he might "enter politics again” in a potential Republican administration, was critical of Mr Biden’s decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan last year.
He claimed the Trump administration would have left “sufficient support” so that Afghan security forces could have maintained control.
“President Biden came in and made a decision that was different, I'm convinced against all military advice," he said. "That's his prerogative, he’s the commander-in-chief.
"His military advisers told him precisely what would happen but he made a decision to pick a certain date, and largely what they had suggested was a high probability actually occurred.
"It not only had a devastating outcome on Afghans, but America is now less credible than it was before.”
He said the subsequent extremist takeover was a “tragedy” and described the Taliban as “nasty, evil and liars”.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The biog
Siblings: five brothers and one sister
Education: Bachelors in Political Science at the University of Minnesota
Interests: Swimming, tennis and the gym
Favourite place: UAE
Favourite packet food on the trip: pasta primavera
What he did to pass the time during the trip: listen to audio books
Allardyce's management career
Clubs (10) - Limerick (1991-1992), Perston North End (1992), Blackpool (1994-1996), Notts County (1997-1999), Bolton Wanderers (1999-2007), Newcastle United (2007-2008), Blackburn Rovers (2008-2010), West Ham United (2011-2015), Sunderland (2016), Crystal Palace (2016-2017)
Countries (1) - England (2016)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
Dr Graham's three goals
Short term
Establish logistics and systems needed to globally deploy vaccines
Intermediate term
Build biomedical workforces in low- and middle-income nations
Long term
A prototype pathogen approach for pandemic preparedness
UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
Winners
Ballon d’Or (Men’s)
Ousmane Dembélé (Paris Saint-Germain / France)
Ballon d’Or Féminin (Women’s)
Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona / Spain)
Kopa Trophy (Best player under 21 – Men’s)
Lamine Yamal (Barcelona / Spain)
Best Young Women’s Player
Vicky López (Barcelona / Spain)
Yashin Trophy (Best Goalkeeper – Men’s)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City / Italy)
Best Women’s Goalkeeper
Hannah Hampton (England / Aston Villa and Chelsea)
Men’s Coach of the Year
Luis Enrique (Paris Saint-Germain)
Women’s Coach of the Year
Sarina Wiegman (England)
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
