Bad friends for Biden

Joe Biden is not disappointing in his first days in the White House. The decrees he has signed propose a radical change in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, which has already claimed the lives of more than 400,000 Americans; in immigration policy, where he intends to regularise thousands of people already living on US soil; with the increase in civil servants' salaries and food subsidies for the most disadvantaged; and with the reversal of the exit from the Paris Agreements on Climate Change and the permanence in the World Health Organisation. These are some of the decisions taken from the Oval Office that mark the beginning of a mandate as promised and in accordance with policies that other Democratic presidents, most recently Barack Obama, had followed. For us, it is particularly relevant that the White House has recovered the Spanish language on its website and in other publications.

Elsewhere in the world, there is much expectation to know what real decisions Biden is going to make while the members of his government team go through the parliamentary control process, such as Lloyd Austin, the first African-American to be in charge of the Pentagon. First decision, to review Trump's agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan. It is precisely Middle East policy that has millions of people, many governments and institutions, too many loobies and those who think that the supposed weakness or sensitivity of the Democrats to their cause can help them recover on the regional scene. This is the case of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation considered terrorist by many governments in the region for its demonstrated support for various groups. It was striking that last Thursday, the secretary general of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, Ali al-Qaradaghi, expressed his appreciation for what he called the "religious trait" in Biden's personality with Christian virtues. Some analysts in the region, such as Kamal Habib, argue that it is highly unlikely that the Muslim Brotherhood will receive US support to return to the political scene, for example in Egypt. They recall that Obama's initial support for the misnamed Arab Springs backfired when the results of his policies in Egypt and Tunisia, and his alliances in Syria and Yemen, became clear. Especially after the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, with the assassination of the US ambassador.