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Harris has a different tone than Biden when she talks about Gaza and other Middle East problems, but her policies are exactly the same.

In terms of the US election, 2024 was one of the worst years ever. In the past two months, President Joe Biden gave a shockingly lackluster performance in the debates and then dropped off the ticket. There was also an attempt on the life of former President and current Republican nominee Donald Trump and the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris. There are now three months left for the Harris campaign to sell its ideas to the people of the United States.

Most likely, economic issues at home will be the main issue for US voters in the election. However, how the 47th president will handle foreign policy will also be a very important question, both for Americans and for everyone else in the world who will be directly or indirectly affected by the new administration’s policies. There will be a lot going on in the world during the next government. There are wars going on in Ukraine and Gaza, and competition between the US and China is growing.

When it comes to the Middle East, Harris’s choice of Tim Walz as her running mate completes her ticket and gives us more information about what her presidency might mean for the area. It is hard to know exactly what Harris and Walz think about many important problems because they haven’t said much about foreign policy. Still, there are enough hints to get a general idea of their future Middle East policy, which, while not exactly the same, seems to be going to follow the lead of Vice President Biden.

Small differences about Gaza
Harris carefully phrased her response to Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7 as “As Israel defends itself, it matters how.” Her recent statement, “I will not be silent [on suffering in Gaza]” in response to Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, DC, has set her views on the conflict apart from Biden’s in the eyes of American voters. There were reports that the National Security Council had to “tone down” her words in a speech she gave in March, in which she called the conditions in Gaza “inhumane” and told Israel to send more aid. This made the difference even clearer.

Harris has been a bit tougher on Israel about the rising death toll in Gaza than Biden, and she didn’t even rule over Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on July 24. However, these actions don’t suggest that Harris is going against current Democratic policy. After all, Harris met with the Israeli prime minister one-on-one the next day, even though he didn’t give a speech at Congress. She also officially reaffirmed her support for Israel. People were protesting the war in Gaza at a Harris campaign gathering this week. She shifted the conversation to the war and said, “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that.” If not, I’ll speak up. It’s possible that her answer shows she doesn’t want the Gaza war to be one of the main topics of the campaign.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the area
It’s also not clear how Harris would act as president when it comes to other US interests and the current tensions in the Middle East. Harris always voted against sending arms to Saudi Arabia and US backing for the Saudi-led coalitions in the Yemeni civil war while she was in the Senate. To fight terrorism, she said that the Saudis were helpful, but the US needed to rethink its relationship with them “to stand up for American values and interests.”

As vice president during Biden’s efforts to bring peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, her stance changed, in part because of the growing influence of China and Russia in the region. As president, she would probably want to improve security ties between the US and Saudi Arabia and work with the country on projects to transition to new technologies and energy sources.

Israel recently killed top leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, which has made things worse between Iran and Israel. Harris’s Iran policy would probably involve a careful balancing act. Harris said that the US needs to rethink the Iran nuclear deal, which is officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), when she was running for president in 2020. Since Biden failed to bring the deal back to life after the Trump administration’s controversial exit in 2018 and the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani in 2020, which Harris called “reckless,” her chances of getting a new nuclear deal with Iran have gone down.

Harris’s choice of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice president, a mostly ceremonial post, makes it seem more likely that she will follow a Middle East policy similar to what most Democrats believe if she wins the presidency.

As a congressman, Walz has always taken a stand on the Middle East that is in line with most Democrats. For example, he has supported the JCPOA, the US pulling out of Iraq, and giving money to Israel. But he was against President Barack Obama’s airstrikes in Syria and, like his running mate, he was against US backing for operations in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia.