U.S. vows action against Saudi Arabia for oil cut
STORY: Just three months after U.S. president Joe Biden paid a rare visit to Saudi Arabia, tensions have escalated over the OPEC leader’s decision to join its allies – including Russia – in tightening global oil supply.
It’s a move that both Biden’s trip – followed by weeks of lobbying by U.S. officials – failed to prevent.
And one that now lands as a potential one-two punch that could both raise U.S. gas prices ahead of November’s midterm elections and increase oil revenue for Russia as it wages its war in Ukraine.
As a result Biden this week warned of “consequences” for the Saudis, and on Wednesday said he would look at proposed legislation punishing the kingdom when Congress is back is session.
To that end, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal proposed a bill that would halt arm sales to the Saudis for one year, and on Wednesday had harsh words for a country that was once one of the U.S.’s strongest allies in the Middle East.
“The Saudis need to come their senses. The have committed a humongous blunder, very much against their own economic and security interests, as well as ours. The only apparent purpose of this cut in oil supplies is to help the Russians and harm Americans.”
But Saudi economics consultant Majid Al-Suwaigh scoffed at the angry U.S. response, telling Reuters it was in the interest of the market to curb oil output, and that any White House rebuke was due to what he called a failure by the U.S. and Europe to control inflation.
“Oil is a commodity, not a tool or weapon for the political process. [FLASH] This was unanimously done by the OPEC countries, and oil prices rising or decreasing is the result of the supply and demand, and this is controlled by the market, not the members."
Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia in July was his most fraught foreign visit to date – with critics seeing it as an about-face for a president who, on the campaign trail, vowed the make the kingdom a “pariah” for its human rights abuses.
Prominent among those was the killing of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which U.S. intelligence officials say was approved by Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Bin Salman has denied the accusation.
