AMMAN, Jordan: Although Hani Fawzi Mulki, the former Prime Minister of Jordan, is banking on a combined economic and political victory for his country during US President Joe Biden’s visit to the region this week, he is also managing his expectations.

The visit comes at a time when the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the resulting Western embargo on Russian oil and gas have led to a global spike in the prices of fuel, food and other raw materials.

“You have to be careful not to segregate Biden’s visit based on both location and time of the visit,” Mulki told Arab News, just days before the US leader’s scheduled arrival in Saudi Arabia.

“The location suggests a largely economic focus, while the timing is tied to the Russian war on Ukrainian lands.”

The United States has urged Saudi Arabia and other states in the region to increase oil and gas production to make up for the shortfall and help stabilize energy prices, a move that producers in the Gulf were reluctant to take.

“Riyadh is a regional economic superpower and has unique political strength, which means most of Biden’s time in the region will be spent on economic issues,” Mulki said.

Meanwhile, political instability in Israel following the resignation of Naftali Bennett as prime minister last month has left many observers skeptical about the possibility of progress on the Palestinian issue and the peace process.

“The fact that Israel has a political vacuum, due to the resignation of the elected prime minister and the presence of an interim government, means that no major decision will be taken at this level,” Mulki added.

In recent months, Western countries have been vying for political and economic influence in the Middle East and North Africa region, said Mulki, who served as Jordan’s prime minister from 2016 to 2018.

“We’ve seen an active French effort and presence in Africa lately, while the Americans want to flex their muscles in the Middle East, and Germany seems to be looking for its piece of the pie, while the Europeans are also trying to make sure that their own neighbour, Turkey, is not firmly established in the region,” he explained.

These interventions have been shaped by the many imbalances in the region, he added, which include pockets of conflict alongside areas of rapid economic development.

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• Hani Fawzi Mulki, born October 15, 1951, is a Jordanian politician and has held several ministerial and diplomatic posts.
• He was Chief Commissioner of the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority before his appointment as the 41st Prime Minister of Jordan by King Abdullah II on May 29, 2016.
• He resigned on June 4, 2018, following nationwide protests against IMF-backed austerity measures implemented by his government in an effort to tackle Jordan’s growing public debt.

Mulki described the Middle East as a “quasi-stable region” and argued that this should be reflected in the Biden administration’s efforts.

“We live in a period of near stable stability,” Mulki said. “We are not stable and we are not unstable – we are halfway there. But if things continue to go in the wrong direction, we will be in big trouble.

In particular, he pointed to social and economic inequalities in the region which he warned could fuel extremism and unrest.

“The disparities in the region are an invitation to radicalism and terrorism,” he said. “We have to move forward together and come up with a win-win situation.”

The way to achieve this, Mulki said, is through enhanced regional coordination and cooperation, free from outside influence or domination.

“In order to achieve the desired stability, the countries of the region must be truly independent and be able to determine their own future,” he added.

Biden’s high-profile trip this week includes visits to Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia. While in the Kingdom, he will have one-on-one talks with several Arab leaders.

“We would like to see a win-win meeting that will include both economic and political decisions,” Mulki said.

A political victory, he said, would be a decision to revisit the Arab Peace Initiative, also known as the Saudi Initiative, a 10-sentence proposal to end the Arab-Israeli conflict that was approved by the Arab League at the Beirut Summit. in 2002, and reaffirmed at the Arab League summits in 2007 and 2017.

He proposes a normalization of relations between the Arab world and Israel, in exchange for the latter’s total withdrawal from the occupied territories, a “just settlement” of the Palestinian refugee problem and the creation of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem. for capital.

“To have true independence, we must guarantee the return of the rights of our people and meet the aspirations of the Palestinians to establish their own state on the lands occupied in 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital,” Mulki said.

“If, then, there is meaningful and sustained economic cooperation to develop our region, we welcome it, but we don’t want to aid the interests of others at the expense of our own people and those of future generations.”

Arab nations want true coexistence, he said, “but we cannot have economic coexistence without political coordination,” and the “region cannot have cooperation without respect for the rights of Palestinians and peoples. Arabs”.

Two years ago, several Arab countries signed the Abraham Accords, a US-brokered agreement for normalizing relations with Israel. The process began in August 2020 with the United Arab Emirates, which was the first Arab country to publicly establish formal relations with Israel since Egypt did so in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994. Bahrain, the Sudan and Morocco followed suit in the months that followed.

Proponents of the deals have praised the resulting potential for trade and commerce. Others, however, are skeptical about whether the accords will promote peace in the region or encourage a resolution to the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mulki is adamant that a resolution of the Palestinian issue is a prerequisite for progress in Jordan, which continues to host and support several generations of Palestinian refugees despite its own economic difficulties.

“The most important thing for Jordan is that there is an opportunity to be heard on the issue of Palestine,” he said. “That’s the key to getting economic growth when there’s tension, and it’s not artificial but real tension.

“The region is unstable and will continue to be considered a quasi-stable region until the Palestinian conflict is peacefully and justly resolved.”