Saudi is ‘maturer’ side in U.S. standoff, says minister
STORY: A warning from Saudi Arabia's energy minister appeared aimed at U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman accused countries of using their emergency oil reserves to “manipulate” energy prices rather than helping with shortages of supply.
His remarks come after the Biden administration recently announced plans to sell an additional 15 million barrels from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve by year’s end as it tries to curb high gasoline prices in the wake of production cuts from OPEC.
"People are depleting their emergency stocks, had depleted it, used it as a mechanism to manipulate markets, while its profound purpose was to mitigate shortages of supply. Be it as it may, it's everybody's choice, however, it is my profound duty to make clear to the world that losing emergency stocks may be painful in the months to come."
Relations with the United States deteriorated earlier this month when the OPEC+ group of oil producers, of which Saudi is the de facto leader, decided to cut output, prompting the Biden administration to warn there would be "consequences" for U.S. ties with Riyadh.
The two traditional allies' relationship had already been strained by the Biden administration's stance on the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Yemen war, as well as Riyadh's growing ties with China and Russia.
The prince said Saudi Arabia had chosen to be "the maturer" party when asked about how to get the energy relationship with the U.S. back on track.
The remarks came at the kingdom's yearly Future Investment Initiative forum.
Despite tensions, the three-day event saw a big turnout from American executives as it kicked off on Tuesday.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon spoke at the conference, and voiced confidence that Saudi Arabia and the United States would safeguard their 75-year-old alliance.
No Biden administration officials were visible at the forum on Tuesday.
Jared Kushner, a former senior aide to then-President Donald Trum who has since won a $2 billion Saudi government investment for a new firm, was featured as a front-row speaker.
