By Neelam Rahim

In a discussion with Radio Islam International, Hafez Ebrahim Moosa says that Joe Biden, the United States President, is travelling to the Middle East for his tour starting on Wednesday, which will continue until Friday.

“It starts meeting the Israeli, and by Friday, you will be in Saudi Arabia as per the plans. In that facility are going to be visiting or meeting up with a key as well as the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Many analysts are saying that the key reason for this visit is all about the Ukrainian crisis and the rising global oil prices, and an attempt to convince Saudi Arabia to increase its oil output,” says Hafez Ebrahim.

Hafez Ebrahim also tells Radio Islam that “despite this being the official reason for this visit, many people are saying that the American President is trying to portray this in a certain way to show that he’s not desperate for Saudi assistance.”

In an Op-Ed in The Washington Post and recent press comments, Joe Biden has said quite clearly that this visit has to do with national security. That is for the Israelis. He also said part of this trip to the Middle East is to deepen Israel’s integration into the region.

“Most analysts are saying no, we are not going to be seeing some dramatic announcement of normalisation; we’re just going to see a continued continuation of the path of incremental normalisation. So there’s going to be an agreement on the transfer of sovereignty of two islands that belonged previously to Egypt and will be to Saudi Arabia. This requires Israeli consent because of the location that they’re in,” says Hafez Ebrahim.

Listen to Radio Islam’s podcast below for more on this.