According to a new story, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is not a fan of President Biden.
Saudi government officials told the Wall Street Journal that the 37-year-old Saudi ruler mocks President Biden in private, making fun of the 79-year-gaffes old’s and questioning his mental acuity.
The crown prince, also known as MBS, told advisers he has not been impressed with Biden since his stint as vice president and that he’much preferred’ Trump.
MBS’s scorn was on full display when he led OPEC+ in a decision to restrict oil output by 2 million barrels per day, resulting in a spike in gas prices one month before the midterm elections in the United States.
The move was viewed as a big setback for Biden’s efforts to combat inflation, as the economy is a primary priority for Americans heading into the midterm elections, and a benefit for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will be allowed to sell Russian oil at a higher price.
According to a new story, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is not a fan of President Biden.
This month, MBS led OPEC+ in lowering oil output by 2 million barrels per day.
Biden promised to’reevaluate’ Washington’s relationship with Riyadh to see whether or not it serves national security goals. In an interview with CNN last week, he promised that there will be ‘consequences’ for the decision made by Riyadh. The Saudis have also stated that they wish to review their ties with the United States.
If Congress approves anti-OPEC legislation, one extreme possibility that has been mentioned is the sale of all U.S. Treasury bonds, of which the Saudis control approximately $120 billion.
Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser for the White House, stated that Vice President Biden would not act ‘prematurely’ but would talk with Congress next month, when lawmakers return to Washington, on how to proceed.
The Saudis stated that they rejected the White House’s plea to delay the output cut until after the election season.
Saudi Arabia stated in a statement, “The government of the kingdom underlined through its ongoing consultations with the U.S. administration that all economic calculations indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, as indicated, would have had negative economic implications.”
The 37-year-old Saudi ruler makes light of the 79-year-old president’s gaffes and questions his mental acuity in private. Saudi government officials disclosed to the Wall Street Journal the following:
The White House denied that their opposition to OPEC+ reduction was motivated by domestic politics.
In July, Biden met with MBS in Jeddah as part of a larger trip to meet with Gulf allies that the White House claimed had nothing to do with oil. The encounter began with a controversial handshake.
According to the Journal, Saudi officials believed Biden “didn’t want to be there and was uninterested in the policy conversation.”
People close to the negotiations said that Biden enraged the crown prince by quickly bringing up human rights breaches, particularly the 2018 death of Jamal Khashoggi. Biden’s first move as president was to release a report implicating MBS to the grisly mutilation of Khashoggi.
But the White House highlighted the opening of Saudi air space to Israeli commercial flights as one of the outcomes of that visit.
After years of giving Saudi Arabia hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of weaponry despite their role in the destruction wreaked by the Yemeni civil war, Democrats in Congress have proposed reducing lucrative US-Saudi arms transactions.
In the meantime, Republicans argued that the Biden administration should have spent less time appeasing Saudi Arabia and more time extracting oil locally.
And despite the crown prince’s distaste for Vice President Biden, the monarchy asserted that its intentions for reducing production were solely economic, aiming to prevent a dramatic price decrease.
Saudi officials complain to the Journal that their relationship with the West is viewed solely through the lens of oil and security concerns. They intend to utilize the high price of oil to upgrade other sectors of the Saudi economy.
Our economic agenda is vital to our continued existence. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, stated in an interview that the issue is not limited to energy and defense alone. It may have been the case 50 years ago, but it is not the case today.
Bin Farhan denied that MBS had privately disparaged Biden.
Prince Faisal stated that the charges made by unidentified sources are completely incorrect. The leaders of the kingdom have always held the utmost regard for U.S. presidents due to the kingdom’s conviction in the need of a mutually respectful relationship.
Any further turbulence in the US-Saudi relationship has the potential to undermine counterterrorism operations, efforts to limit Iran, and Israel’s growing acceptance in the region.
All eyes are now on the upcoming OPEC+ summit at the beginning of December, when the European Union aims to impose its oil embargo on Russia and the G7 rich nations cap the price of Russian crude oil.