Democratic 2020 US presidential nominee Joe Biden and his family celebrate onstage at his election rally, after the news media announced that Biden has won the 2020 U.S. presidential election over President Donald Trump, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., Nov
Washington: Foreign policy has not been a major part of the 2020 US presidential election campaign, and there are no major differences between current US President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden regarding foreign policy in the Middle East.
President Trump has preserved traditional US alliances in the Middle East, even though he was not a conventional president.
Observers consider that both Trump and Biden are very close to Israel, as Trump brought US policy, which has always been friendly to Israel, to new territory. He allowed Israel to move its capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. His State Department also declared that the settlements were legal, reversing decades of US policy.
Biden was vice president to President Barack Obama, who had his differences with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It's not clear if Biden always agreed with Obama on Israel or whether he would raise US objections to the illegal West Bank settlements.
It is also expected that Biden will support the normalization of Arab countries' relations with Israel, despite the impact of this step on the Palestinian position.
On relations with the Gulf Countries, Biden might be expected to be more skeptical of US support for the war in Yemen than Trump.
In Syria, Biden appears unlikely to restart US efforts to drive President Bashar al-Assad from power, but will likely continue sanctions on Damascus, maintain US troops in Syria's eastern oilfields and oppose Russian and Syrian attempts to destroy remaining jihadist strongholds in Idlib province.
Iran is where there may well be a difference between Trump and Biden. Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal with Iran, which was Obama's signature foreign policy achievement.
Biden has signaled that he would want to rejoin the deal, which has frayed considerably without US participation.
If Biden pursues that track, he would have to offer to again lift US sanctions on Iran to re-enter the deal and keep pressure on Teheran to uphold its end of the bargain.
It is likely that US policies in the Middle East will continue without significant changes due to the coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19) and the sharp economic limited priorities of the new US administration.
