Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman at the OPEC and non-OPEC meeting on October 5, 2022.
Vladimir Simecek/AFP via Getty Images
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Vladimir Simecek/AFP via Getty Images
Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman at the OPEC and non-OPEC meeting on October 5, 2022.
Vladimir Simecek/AFP via Getty Images
President Biden wants to take a closer look at America’s long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ decided to cut oil production last week, a decision the White House said was unwarranted and primarily serves to help Russia.
“I’m in the process, when the House and Senate come back, there will be some consequences for what they did with Russia,” he told CNN Tuesday night, but declined to say what those consequences were.
Earlier today, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Saudi Arabia played a major role in cutting production. He said Biden wants to discuss the future of US-Saudi relations with Congress, and whether these relations still serve the national interest.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announce It would cut production by 2 million barrels per day, a move some see as a way Punish the United States and its continued support for Ukraine.
Kirby said the organization’s production cuts were not justified by market conditions and described it as a “short-sighted decision that benefited Russia, at a time when no one should – in any capacity – try to benefit Vladimir Putin”.
Riyadh asserts that the decision was the result of market conditions – and denied that it was intended to target Washington.
“The idea that Saudi Arabia would do this to harm the United States or engage politically in any way is absolutely not true,” said Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Fox News said.
The tensions between the two countries come as Biden and his fellow Democrats appear to have benefited from lower gas prices four weeks before the midterm elections. The OPEC decision could push gas prices higher, affecting the electoral prospects of Democrats in a campaign that featured inflation As a major issue for voters.
According to US Department of State. However, the United States has been critical The Kingdom in recent years because of the Saudi record in the field of human rights.
Biden had promised when he ran for the presidency that he would hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its human rights abuses, including the killing Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
criticize Biden this summer To meet Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman this summer, and greet him with a fist. The meeting combined with tight global oil supplies and high prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden plans to speak to lawmakers after the midterms
Kirby declined to comment on specific proposals on how to change the relationship, saying Biden would speak to lawmakers when they return to Washington after next month’s midterm elections.
“He knows that many members have expressed concerns on both sides of the aisle,” Kirby said.
New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a harsh statement Monday calling for a freeze in arms sales.
in statementMenendez accused the kingdom of using its position in OPEC+ to side with Russia and its campaign in Ukraine.
“There is simply no room for playing on both sides of this conflict — either supporting the rest of the free world in trying to prevent a war criminal from violently wiping an entire country off the map, or supporting it,” Menendez said. . Saudi Arabia chose the latter with a terrible decision out of economic self-interest.”
New Jersey Representative Tom Malinowski told NPR last week that Saudi Arabia’s decision was a hostile act, and that the United States should reconsider its security role in the kingdom. “I don’t see any good reason for us to keep forces that are there almost solely for the sole purpose of protecting their oil fields and their security interests.”
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