LIVE – Emmanuel Macron calls for an end to deliveries of weapons used by Israel in Gaza

Joe Biden has become a spectator rather than an actor in the Middle East crisis. Almost a year after the massacre of October 7, 2023, perpetrated by Hamas against the Jewish State in the south of Israel, the American president seems to have less control than ever over the events which are precipitating in the Middle East. The American president caused a rise in oil prices on Thursday by suggesting that Israel could attack Iranian oil installations, without however clearly indicating what strategy he advocates after the attack on Iran earlier this week.

If Biden is not the first American president to face an unforeseen crisis in the region, his administration has appeared over the past year to be singularly powerless to influence its developments. The Democratic president, who regularly prides himself on his experience in foreign affairs, has seen the United States relegated to an auxiliary role by Israel, its main ally in the region, which has little regard for its interests and recommendations, including public ones. At the same time, Biden’s permanent concern to avoid any escalation, which now serves as a strategy in the United States, is interpreted by his adversaries as a reluctance to use force, and has considerably diminished its capacity for deterrence.

Read our story I How Joe Biden lost all control over the actors in the Middle East conflict