With China brokering talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran, former Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., is warning the U.S. needs to remain engaged in the region to avoid giving China ground there.
"This has been an amazing week in Middle Eastern politics," Lieberman told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on 77 WABC N.Y.
Saudi Arabia is seeking three things America can still provide, Lieberman told host John Catsimatidis: a "security guarantee," access to defense weaponry, and a civilian nuclear program.
"That's their ask," Lieberman said. "We can give them a lot of that and not jeopardize ourselves — certainly not our economy, because they want to do business with us — and also improve the security of the Middle East.
"We've got to do that consulting with our No. 1 ally there, which is Israel: the one country America can count on to be with us in a moment of conflict or crisis."
The U.S. must bring Israel and Saudi Arabia to talks, building on the Trump administration Abraham Accords, he continued.
"The negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Israel are a real opportunity for us to prove to the Saudis that we will stick with them," he said.
"It would be the big one. It would be the game changer."
The U.S. allowing China to fill any void of diplomacy would be dangerous, he concluded.
"The U.S. has to remain actively involved in the Middle East. And any thought of somehow we could pull away to the Asia Pacific because of China, it just doesn't go because China's going everywhere else in the world, including the Middle East," he said.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.