The US president's visit to the turbulent region may highlight the limits of American power.
Joe Biden might prefer not to have visited the Middle East this week, or any other week for that matter. His agenda is full.
To make matters worse, President Biden's own previous visits to the Middle East have shown the limits of American power. When he visited Jerusalem as Barack Obama's vice-president, he was humiliated by the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he called for a freeze on Israel's settlement projects for Jews in the occupied territories, which are illegal under international law.
President Biden is travelling because of the depth and complexity of the crises he is trying to grip. More awkwardly, he is going to ask the Saudis for a very big favour - to produce more oil and sell it at a lower price. The economic dislocation that followed the invasion of Ukraine left the US, just like the rest of the world, with high energy prices, even though they are no longer dependent on oil imports from the Gulf. The blunt political truth for Mr Biden is that every cent on a gallon of petrol in the United States loses more votes for his Democrats at the mid-term elections.
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