The United States set the stage for China to negotiate a Middle East peace deal by excluding 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 economically strangled Iran due to its nuclear weapons efforts and human rights abuses.
“It’s certainly a failure of the Biden administration,” Turner, R-Ohio, told DailyMail.com in an interview, blaming the president for growing divisions between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
A new Chinese-brokered peace deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia is the result of a “failure” by the US, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner.
The two regional powers reached an agreement on Friday to restore ties and reopen diplomatic missions in a surprise announcement mediated by Beijing that signaled China’s tighter control over the region.
“The Biden administration came in and immediately started criticizing and attacking our ally Saudi Arabia,” he said. “They felt vulnerable and without the military support of the United States.”
Relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia have been on the decline since Biden took office. It began during the 2020 presidential campaign when Biden vowed to treat the kingdom as a ‘pariah’ following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In October, the Biden administration said it would ‘reassess’ its relationship with the Saudis and that there would be ‘consequences’ after OPEC+ cut oil production just before the US midterm elections.
The Intel chairman called Saudi Arabia a “strong ally” and called Iran “a regime that is trying to destabilize the entire Middle East and attacks its neighbors.”
“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 is meant to quell nearly a decade-long violence in Yemen, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels have been fighting the Saudi-backed government. Washington officials are “skeptical” that Iran will honor its end of the bargain and cut off arms supplies to Houthi fighters.
It seems unlikely that the pact will do anything to stop Iran’s buildup of nuclear weapons or put any kind of nuclear deal on the table again.
The deal came after five days of secret talks in Beijing, and China’s role as a go-between raises the question of whether it has now surpassed 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 mediated by Beijing that signaled China’s tightening control over the region.
Human rights advocates were outraged after President Joe Biden greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saudi Arabia targeted Jamal Khashoggi because he knew about the kingdom’s ties to al-Qaeda in the run-up to 9/11. The Saudi crown prince is responsible for Khashoggi’s murder in a US report. But the Biden administration stopped short of directly sanctioning Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calculating the risk of harming US interests was too great.
Turner said the Biden administration is not taking the growing nuclear capabilities of adversaries around the world seriously enough, noting that Russia had suspended the New START treaty and “had received no response from the Biden administration.”
The nuclear arms control treaty, signed in 2010, was the last remaining nuclear treaty between the US and Russia and limited each nation’s nuclear warheads and ICBMs.
“We need to invest in modernizing our nuclear weapons capabilities and invest heavily in missile defense capabilities. The nuclear threat from Russia and China’s increasing 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,” he said. Turner.
“The Biden administration seems to be just writing it off because it doesn’t require any attention for our strategic planning.”
Still, the Intel chairman praised Biden for quickly declassifying information related to Russia’s war with Ukraine, saying he hoped the declassification of US intelligence showing China was considering arming Russia would put them off.
“We have seen that as we declassified information regarding Russia, it has affected their strategy and what they do going forward. I am hopeful that by declassifying the information that China was considering arming 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 moves to send weapons to Russia, but said the implications for Ukraine could be dire.
“The problem with Chinese weapons in the hands of the Russians is that they are an exhausting source of weapons for Russia, where Russia is running out of some military capabilities,” Turner said.
“With Chinese support and weapons systems, they will be able to continue as long as the Russian people are willing to bear the loss of life and casualties that Putin’s war has caused.”
Despite the Kremlin’s requests for weapons, China has so far only provided Russia with non-lethal aid such as helmets and body armor, but has benefited from cheap Russian oil that no other country will buy under Western sanctions.
It’s been over a year since Russia launched its brutal invasion, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to call on the US and its allies to provide more weapons and long-range munitions, describing the Ukraine war as a way to protect all of Europe from Russian aggression.
Republicans disagree on whether the United States should continue funding Ukraine’s war efforts without a clear path to end the conflict. The United States has sent some $113 billion in lethal, nonlethal, and financial aid since the February 2022 invasion.