Biden is traveling to the Middle East for his first tour as President

U.S. President Joe Biden lands in the Middle East on Wednesday for a trip that will see Israeli leaders push for tougher action on Iran ahead of a tricky stop in Saudi Arabia.

The 79-year-old president’s visit to Jeddah on Friday will be the focus of the tour after Biden branded Saudi Arabia a “pariah” over the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident and US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Air Force One will also operate an unprecedented direct flight between the Jewish state and the conservative Gulf kingdom, which does not recognize its existence.

Before that, Biden will meet with Israeli leaders who want to expand cooperation against Iran and Palestinian leaders who are frustrated by what they describe as Washington’s failure to contain Israeli aggression.

The ongoing frustrations of Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy are nothing new for Biden, who first visited the region in 1973 after being elected to the Senate.

Iran and Israel were allies then, but the Jewish state now views Tehran as its greatest threat.

Israel’s Acting Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who took office less than two weeks ago, said the talks “will primarily focus on the Iran issue.”

Shortly after Biden lands, Israel’s military will show him its new Iron Beam system, an anti-drone laser it claims is crucial in countering Iran’s fleet of UAVs.

Israel insists it will do whatever necessary to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions and is staunchly opposed to restoring the 2015 deal that eased sanctions on Tehran.

Israel says it is raising 1,000 flags across Jerusalem to welcome the US leader who did not reverse former President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to recognize the city as the capital of the Jewish state.

The Palestinians claim Israel-annexed East Jerusalem as their capital and, ahead of the visit, have accused Biden of failing to fulfill his promise to restore the United States as an honest mediator in the conflict.

“We hear only empty words and no results,” said Jibril Rajoub, a leader of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s secular Fatah movement.

Biden is set to meet Abbas in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Friday, but no bold announcements for a new peace process are expected, meaning the visit could only deepen Palestinian frustration.

Israel, too, is at a political deadlock ahead of November 1st elections, the fifth vote in less than four years.

US-Palestinian relations were recently strained by the assassination in May of prominent Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering an Israeli army incursion in the occupied West Bank.

The United Nations has concluded that the Palestinian-American national was killed by Israeli fire, which Washington thought was likely, but said there was no evidence the killing was intentional.

Abu Akleh’s family have expressed “outrage” at the Biden administration’s “pathetic response” to her death, and the White House has not commented on their request to meet the president in Jerusalem.

Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia is seen as part of an effort to stabilize oil markets shattered by the war in Ukraine by reengaging with a country that has been a key strategic ally of the United States and a major oil supplier for decades.

But Israel hopes the visit will also signal the start of diplomatic relations between the country and Riyadh.

Israel expanded its regional reach with US support in 2020 when it formalized ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco – breakthroughs made after its peace deals with Jordan in 1994 and Egypt in 1979.

While Saudi Arabia is not expected to recognize the Jewish state anytime soon, a senior Israeli official said Tuesday Biden’s visit was an important step.