Saudi Arabia must compensate for Iran oil cut: Donald Trump
President Donald Trump lashed out at the Opec with a warning to stop manipulating oil markets and piled pressure on US ally Saudi Arabia to raise supplies to compensate for lower exports from Iran.
On Sunday, in an interview with Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” Trump reiterated his call on Saudi Arabia to raise production to a new record, arguing that it should help the United States lower fuel prices since Washington is helping Riyadh in its struggle against Tehran. “Don’t forget the one negative to the Iran deal is that you lose a lot of oil, and they got to make up for it. And who is their big enemy? Iran. OK. You think of it. Iran is their big enemy, so they are going to have to do it,” Trump said.
“And I have a very good relationship with the (Saudi) king and with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and with the others around and they are going to have to put out more oil.” Oil prices rose last week on worries that US sanctions against Iran would take away significant volumes of crude oil from world markets while oil demand worldwide increases.
Earlier this year, to the chagrin of European partners, Trump said he would pull the US out of the Iran nuclear agreement secured by world powers.
On Fox, Trump directed blame at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, of which Saudi Arabia is the biggest producer. Asked whether someone was manipulating oil markets, Trump said: “100 percent. Opec is and they better stop it because we’re protecting those countries, many of those countries... Opec is manipulating, and you know they allowed (a production increase) less than we thought last week.”