Saudi ‘hostile act’ sparks calls for US to abandon oil state
President Joe Biden yesterday effectively acknowledged the failure of one of his biggest and most humiliating foreign policy gambles: a fist-bump with the defacto leader of Saudi Arabia, the crown prince associated with human rights abuses.
Biden’s awkward encounter with Mohammed bin Salman in July was a humbling attempt to mend relations with the world’s most influential oil power at a time when the US was seeking its help in opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting surge in oil prices.
That fist bump three months ago was followed by a face slap this week from Prince Mohammed: a big oil production cut by Opec producers and Russia that threatens to sustain oil-producer Russia in its war in Ukraine, drive inflation higher, and push gas prices back toward voter-angering levels just before US midterms, undercutting the election prospects of Biden and Democrats.
Asked about Saudi Arabia’s action, Biden told reporters yesterday it was ‘‘a disappointment, and it says that there are problems’’ in the US-Saudi relationship.
Several Democrats in Congress were calling on the US to respond by pulling back on its decades-old provision of arms and US military protection for Saudi Arabia, charging that Prince Mohammed had stopped upholding Saudi Arabia’s side of a more than 70-year strategic partnership. The relationship is based on the US providing the kingdom with protection against its outside enemies, and on Saudi Arabia providing global markets with enough oil to keep them stable. Calling the oil production cuts ‘‘a hostile act,’’ New Jersey Democratic Rep Tom Malinowski led two other lawmakers in introducing legislation that would pull US troops and Patriot missile batteries out of the kingdom.
The US has no plans at the moment to withdraw military personnel or equipment from Saudi Arabia, State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said yesterday.
Congress and the administration were reacting to the announcement of a bigger than expected cut of 2 million barrels a day by the Opec-plus group, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia. The production cut is likely to drive up prices, bolstering the oil revenue Russia is using to keep waging its war in Ukraine despite US-led international sanctions and further shaking a global economy already struggling with short energy supply.
Saudi oil minister Abdulaziz bin Salman, a half-brother of the crown prince, insisted at the Opec-plus session there was no ‘‘belligerence’’ in the action. But he smiled as he separately told Arabic-speaking reporters that oil producers were ‘‘keeping the world on its toes.’’
As a candidate, Biden had made a passionate promise to make the Saudi royal family a ‘‘pariah’’ over human rights abuses, especially Saudi officials’ killing of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The US intelligence community formally concluded that Prince Mohammed, who wields much of the power in Saudi Arabia in the stead of his aging father, King Salman, had ordered or approved of Khashoggi’s killing.
Biden as president disappointed rights activists when he opted not to penalise Prince Mohammed directly, citing his senior position in the kingdom and the US strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia.
Then Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine worsened an already tight global oil market, driving up gasoline prices and inflation overall. Ally Israel and some in the administration argued that smooth relations between Riyadh and Washington had to be the US priority.
As US prices at the pump rose and Biden’s poll ratings fell further, senior administration officials began shuttling to the Gulf, seeking to soothe Prince Mohammed’s anger at Biden’s campaign remarks and the US findings in Khashoggi’s killing. That led to Biden paying his first visit as president to Saudi Arabia in July, putting presidential prestige behind the attempt to get USSaudi relations, and the global oil supply, back on steadier ground.
In Jeddah, Biden stopped short of offering a muchanticipated handshake. Instead, Biden, looking frailer and more stooped in comparison with Prince Mohammed, who is in his late 30s, leaned in to offer an outof-character fist bump. Prince Mohammed reciprocated. Any smiles on the two men’s faces as their knuckles touched were fleeting. –AP