A whole lot of noise in the media about the cut in oil production by the Saudi’s….
Which of course has sent gas prices up….
Hmmmm?
The question REALLY IS NOT a one for the President of the United States even in CNN’s Dana Bash tried to get a policy call out of the Biden National Security guy this morning…
The Reality IS America will NOT walk away from Saudia Arabia*….
Just NOT gonna happen….
“The Saudi Foreign Ministry can try to spin or deflect, but the facts are simple,” he said, adding that other nations in the oil cartel told the United States privately they “felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction.”
Despite the testy exchanges, both sides face constraints in how to pressure each other in practice, according to interviews with analysts and experts in the Gulf. Washington will not want to do anything to risk the security of the kingdom’s oil sector, any damage to which would send prices spiralling even higher and possibly drive Riyadh closer to China and Russia.
For its part, Riyadh is aware it cannot easily diversify arms supplies for its military, which has been overwhelmingly equipped and trained by the United States ever since the two countries forged their mutually beneficial relationship in 1945.
Still, the U.S.-Saudi rift is widening as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MbS, flags his country’s — and his own — importance on the world stage.
Ties were already frayed by Biden’s stance on the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Yemen war and more recently by the U.S. delay, after Prince Mohammed was named prime minister, in granting him status-based immunity in a U.S. lawsuit on the Khashoggi killing.
“The crown prince believes that the U.S. administration has him in its targets and therefore he decided to challenge it and prove the strength of his position within the kingdom and that he does not care about the U.S. stance,” said one Gulf source, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
‘HORRIBLE MISTAKE’
“They believe the Americans cannot go far in punishing Saudi Arabia so this is a battle of wills and sovereign decision making,” said the source, adding that the Saudis calculated they could absorb “limited” U.S. retaliation options….
…
“It is a very difficult situation. There is elections posturing (by Biden) but there is also bitterness (on both sides),” said another Gulf source, who also declined to be named. “But it can be ironed out, it can be eventually finessed.
*….Saudi Arabia is the United States’ largest foreign military sales (FMS) customer. Nearly eighty percent of Saudi Arabia’s defense acquisitions are with the United States. The U.S. has $126.6 billion in active government-to-government sales cases with Saudi Arabia under the FMS system….