‘Getting the gang back together’: Familiar faces in Biden’s foreign policy team prompt relief and concern

Biden’s foreign policy team is familiar but the world has changed dramatically since they were last in power

Borzou Daragahi International Correspondent / Jan. 15, 2020

William Burns, who led secret talks with Iran under former President Barack Obama, is coming back, this time as CIA director. Wendy Sherman, who oversaw negotiations between the US and both North Korea and Iran, is returning as US deputy State Department chief. Brett McGurk, who served as Obama’s envoy to the Isis war before quitting under Donald Trump , will return as White House coordinator to the Middle East.

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“Concerning Iran, it will be very difficult to bridge between the Israeli position and the US position,” says Raz Zimmt, a Middle East specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. “Whether this leads to a collision depends on what Israel is going to do.”

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States are concerned by signals that Biden will take a more dovish position on Iran and a much tougher line on their human rights transgressions. The Gulf monarchs enjoyed direct lines of communication to the White House via Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and protection from the presidency whenever Congress was poised to act against them, such as in the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s henchmen.

“Saudi Arabia will have so many problems with the new administration,” says Zimmt. “Eventually it will have to adjust itself to the new reality.”

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For full article: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/biden-foreign-policy-obama-trump- b1787748.html