Obama’s Downing Street Visit Sparks Motive Concerns, Questions if Biden Involved

Former US President Barack Obama’s surprise visit to the UK’s 10 Downing Street to meet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has surfaced speculations about the motive of his tour which includes the sitting Democrat President of the United States, Joe Biden.

Obama’s visit to the official residence of the British Prime Minister comes amid a growing divide amongst the democrats over Israel’s war in the besieged Gaza, and the Biden administration’s shift of tone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that the Rafah ground invasion would be a “mistake.”

The 44th President, who served in the White House between 2009 and 2017, was spotted waving outside Downing Street as he entered Sunak’s residence for an undisclosed meeting. He left an hour later alongside US Ambassador to the United Kingdom Jane Hartley. 

No 10 did not reveal the specifics surrounding the 62-year-old's meeting but said that it was an "informal courtesy drop-in" as part of Obama's visit to London. "President Obama's team made contact and obviously the prime minister was happy to meet with him and discuss the work of the Obama Foundation," a Downing Street spokesperson said. “They discussed a range of issues, including international affairs and AI.”

Several analyses have since emerged that the two heavyweights in US politics, Obama and Biden have had a diplomatic fallout over the Israel-Hamas war. The informal, and sudden drop-in of Obama to the British Prime Minister’s residence at the eleventh hour stoked rumours that the visit may have to do with Obama’s own interest in power and influence on the American political decision-making.

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, in a televised interview linked Obama’s visit to America’s stance on the Ukraine war and the Congress’ reluctance to approve the new funding.  “I think Obama is going to help Joe Biden in the coming months. He is probably expressing some sentiment from the White House to the prime minister about the coalition we need to have with the Ukrainian war,” Scaramucci said on Good Morning Britiain.

Obama's echoing disapproval of Biden's Middle East policies a reason?

During the initial weeks of the Israel-Hamas war, Biden credited himself for his policy of an unwavering support for Israel in the aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack. He had privately expressed that Obama, and several other Democrats, including his own aides dismissed his strategy, echoing a disapproval that dates back to 2014 during his role as Vice President when Israel ordered military offensive in Gaza.

Biden, touting his influence on the Israeli government, argued that Obama’s decision to publicly admonish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to launch an assault in Gaza in 2014 instead of an acknowledgement hindered the political influence in the Middle East.

Obama left office leaving a very frustrated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after years of friction and what was later called to be a ‘disastrous’ Iran nuclear Deal. Iran and the six other nations—the United States, China, Russia, Great Britain, France, and Germany—plus the European Union inked the nuclear deal known as the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action” despite the Islamic Republic’s funding of Syria’s Bashar-al-Assad, Palestinian Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and others in the so-called Axis of Resistance that vows to annihilate Israel.

But Obama believed that Iran would “reciprocate our respect with its respect.”

“Don’t judge me on whether this deal transforms Iran, ends Iran’s aggressive behavior toward some of its Arab neighbours or leads to détente between Shiites and Sunnis. Judge me on one thing: Does this deal prevent Iran from breaking out with a nuclear weapon for the next 10 years and is that a better outcome for America, Israel and our Arab allies than any other alternative on the table?” Obama said in an interview with a paper.

Biden’s policy of staunch backing of Israel in the Middle East was extolled by US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby, who publicly defended Biden’s approach, stating, “The approach we’re taking now [in Mideast] is working.”

White House spokesperson Andrew Bates, at a presser, countered the claims about differences between Obama and Biden, stating that Biden’s senior White House and national security advisers were “unaware” of such a development. Obama, who has maintained a low profile since exiting the office, has been reported to differ with Biden’s staunch backing of Israel.

Obama's nuanced perspective of Israel-Hamas War: 'Nobody’s hands are clean'

In an interview with ‘Pod Save America,’ Obama acknowledged the “complexity” of the Middle East crisis that was worsened with Israel and Hamas onslaught in a nuanced perspective.

In his complex analysis, Obama said that several former aides have been “complicit to some degree” in bloodshed. “If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean. That all of us are complicit to some degree,” Obama said.

“I look at this, and I think back, ‘What could I have done during my presidency to move this forward, as hard as I tried?’” Obama maintained in the interview. “But there’s a part of me that’s still saying, ‘Well, was there something else I could have done?’”

Obama’s much-talked-about unexpected visit to Downing Street came at a time when Axios detailed a brewing “rivalry” between the officials in the former Obama administration and the Biden administration over scores of looming differences policy-wise. 

Obama's preference for Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee in 2016 has also been a thorn in the discord. Separately, speculations emerged that as Biden compared his administration’s achievements with that of Obama often, he preferred speaking with former US President Bill Clinton more than Obama, a claim later trashed by White House spokesman Andrew Bates.