America’s Joe Biden It can wait. With the price of gas and oil skyrocketing due to the conflict in Ukraine, and the further increases that will come after the United States‘ decision to block imports of these materials from Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are taking their revenge on a White House considered much colder towards them than Donald Trump’s.
This is how the decision – reported today by the Wall Street Journal – of the hereditary (but de facto leading) principles of the two countries Mohammed bin Salman e Mohammed bin Zayed to refuse to discuss a possible increase in oil production with the American president, who has been trying to get in touch with them in recent days.
For the Saudi in particular, this is a sensational decision: MbS, as the prince is called, has tried to have a direct line with the White House since Biden came to power but until now the American had always refused any contact: between the two the long shadow of the Khashoggi crime – the Saudi journalist killed in his country’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018 – of which the CIA accuses the heir to the throne of having been the mandate. Biden in the electoral campaign had defined MbS a “pariah”: after his election the only direct contacts with the Saudi leadership had been those with the king, the elderly Salman.
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But now things have changed: with oil at over $ 140 a barrel for the first time in 14 years, Riyadh is the only one with the ability to place enough quantities on the market to calm prices. And Biden has to bow his head. Except being faced with the “no” of the young leader, well aware of the role that the war has offered him. Antagonizing the Saudi leadership is not good for the United States, Mohammed bin Salman warned in a long interview with the American monthly. The Atlantic“It is up to the president to take care of American interests. Go ahead,” he said.
The speech in Dubai is different but not too much, where Mohammed bin Zayed accuses the new American leader of an excessive credit opening towards Iran (the negotiations for the resumption of the nuclear agreement underway in Vienna would be in the final straight) and a lack of support in the face of repeated attacks by Yemeni Houthi rebels in recent months.