Most Mideast Leaders React Positively to Biden-Harris Victory in US Election

Leaders from around the Middle East sent blessings to former vice president Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris as vote tallying wrapped up in the last few swing states, bringing the Democratic Party candidates over the 270 mark in the Electoral College and confirming them as the apparent president-elect and vice president-elect of the United States. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq Al Said all congratulated the Democratic candidates. Likewise, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, who is scheduled to take over as Israeli prime minister in November 2021, extended their heartfelt congratulations to the American pair. From Amman, Jordanian King Abdullah II noted his strong personal relationship with Biden, while Iraqi President Barham Salih wrote that he looked forward to working with Biden to reach their common goals of bringing peace to Iraq. Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun’s message to Biden and Harris called for a “return to balance in American-Lebanese relations.” On the other hand, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had not made a public statement as of early Sunday afternoon Ankara time. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wrote on the Twitter platform that “the situation in the US & what they themselves say about their elections is a spectacle! … One thing is absolutely clear, the definite political, civil, & moral decline of the US regime.”