Strategic Council Online – A professor at the Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran, said: Despite some positions, Biden and the Democrats intend to soften the public mind about the crime of Khashoggi’s murder. This Biden’s move clearly demonstrates the Democrats’ cover-up policy, they are always hidden behind the words.

Dr. Elahe Nouri Gholamizadeh, in an interview with the website of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, while pointing to Biden’s position on relations with Saudi Arabia, said that the Democrats in the United States, contrary to Trump, do not act transparently, adding: Although the United States reopened the case of Khashoggi’s assassination during the Biden period and blamed bin Salman for the murder, its objective is not to exclude Riyadh from the circle of its allies.

Raising Khashoggi’s case, in line with Biden’s promises

The expert on the US affairs added: This action is only in line with Biden’s election promises to deal with the main perpetrators of Khashoggi’s assassination and the Democrats’ need to pay attention to human rights issues, transparency, political freedom, etc.; however, despite imposing sanctions on dozens of perpetrators, bin Salman is not on the sanctions list.

Saying that this approach is perfectly normal for the Democrats, she said: they take a measure in secret but ostensibly introduce or propagate it in a different way for the public opinion or the media; but it should be borne in mind that the assassination of Khashoggi did not have pleasant political consequences for Bin Salman, for example, Bin Salman was in isolation at the G20 summit in 2018, and many were not even willing to talk to him!

The expert noted: Obviously, when a Democrat comes to power after a hardline Republican who articulates the United States very clearly, we expect him to present himself in a new way. For example, in the case of the US relationship with the Arab countries, it is clear that the Arab countries are the living source of military budgets and other budgets of the US Congress and institutions, and the US never easily loses an oil-rich country like Saudi Arabia.

America not to sacrifice its strategic interests for a young prince’s action

stressing that the United States is not sacrificing its strategic interests in the region for the actions of a young king, Nouri said: It should also be borne in mind that, although this action may have short-term political consequences for bin Salman, the words of Ned Price, the State Department Spokesman, and lack of imposition of sanctions on bin Salman and lack of his punishment, even in the face of sanctions against other perpetrators of the crime, indicated that the negative effects of the crime on bin Salman’s political life would probably be reduced in the long run. In fact, Biden and the Democrats want to soften public opinion about the crime.

Democrat’s attempt to downplay Khashoggi’s murder case

Meanwhile, referring to the dual standards of the United States in international human rights and criminal affairs, in relation to the targets that Biden’s administration follows in introducing bin Salman as the mastermind of Khashoggi’s murders, Nouri said: The Democrats are somehow covering up this case to say, for example, that the United States is no longer the country it was under Trump, and there has even been a policy change regarding this issue!

The university professor added: The Democrats have even portrayed Trump as if they are intending to separate him from the US system, but the reality is that many of the restrictions they allegedly wanted to impose on Trump after beating the media drum for a while, has been left out and they have nothing to do with him anymore!

Emphasizing that the context of US policies does not change and that Saudi Arabia is their “mother of expenditure”, she said: In addition, a number of Arab monarchies, which are basically rich countries, are also the source of income for the United States and its arms sales and in the region, through them, it can advance its plans in West Asia (the Middle East). The United States does not easily lose such countries. In fact, the playing ground is the same field and only the rules of the game have changed!

Nouri added: Nothing new will happen with the condemnation of Bin Salman by the United States! In Saudi Arabia itself, it was said that this assassination was done by bin Salman. In fact, what Biden is pursuing is not a big deal in politics, it clearly shows the very cover-up policy and soft language of the Democrats, the Democrats are always hiding behind the words, and they certainly continue to do so.

The US expert continued by pointing to Biden’s indifference to the slogans he had uttered during the election campaign about the Arab countries of West Asia (the Middle East) and especially Saudi Arabia, and said: In the United States, there is a process called ‘accumulation of power’, when there is a group of individuals from different states gradually rise and grow in the political system, enter into the Congress, do not go through the overnight process of changing the entire political system with the change of a president. That accumulation and the way of thinking that governs the power is preserved and only its appearance changes.

Referring to the US desire to focus and rotate to Southeast Asia, she added: When the Arab Spring emerged, the United States came to the conclusion that it could not advance much of its goals with the new Middle East map, and the Arab Spring of 2011 prevented them from doing so, unless Biden talks about a series of new policies in the United States in the next year, and if that happens, it is likely that the Arab countries will become a “burn notice” for them and the Middle East will become a new situation for them.

The expert on the US affairs further remarked: It seems that the appearance of politics is changing and in the heart of politics it has not yet been decided what is going to happen in the world. It remains to be seen whether the United States will move down from the superpower model to the leadership model, given the decline it is undergoing, or not; because if it wants to pursue a policy that continues to be dominated by the unipolar power in the world, it has to bear costs, and one of the sources of those costs is the Arab countries.