The Biden administration has said it is ready to consider tough new measures against Saudi Arabia after its decision last week to side with Vladimir Putin and cut oil production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Observers said the move signalled a dramatic abandonment of the US president\u2019s recent attempts to seek a rapprochement with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and casts doubt over the future of the US-Saudi security relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the president\u2019s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit,\u201d John Kirby, the strategic communications coordinator for the national security council, said on CNN. \u201cAnd certainly in light of the Opec decision, I think that\u2019s where he is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among other options, Kirby suggested Biden would speak to senior Democrats on Capitol Hill who have been calling for the US to curtail its cooperation with the kingdom in light of what was seen as Bin Salman\u2019s decision to side with Russian interests over the US. The move to cut oil production comes just weeks before a critical midterm election that could hinge on how much American consumers are paying at the pump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s going to be willing to start to have those conversations right away,\u201d Kirby said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The congressional backlash against Saudi Arabia escalated sharply this week after Robert Menendez, the powerful Democratic chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, threatened to freeze weapons sales and security cooperation with the kingdom, saying Bin Salman was helping to \u201cunderwrite Putin\u2019s war through the Opec+ cartel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Menendez said there was \u201csimply no room to play both sides of this conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI will not green-light any cooperation with Riyadh until the kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine. Enough is enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Former CIA analyst and Saudi expert Bruce Riedel said the White House\u2019s remarks represented a \u201cdramatic reversal\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe went from engaging [Bin Salman] to back to him being a pariah,\u201d Riedel said, referencing a campaign promise Biden made \u2013 but later abandoned \u2013 to isolate the prince because of his alleged role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move by the Opec+ group of the oil cartel and its allies to cut oil production over the objections of the White House was seen by many Democrats as an attempt by the Saudis to tip the scales of November\u2019s midterm election against Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think the pressure from within the Democratic party is enormous. The administration will have to take some step like reducing American forces. The media, and constituencies that matter to Democrats are all demanding steps,\u201d Riedel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Saudis apparent decision to turn their backs on their US allies in favour of Russia comes despite the kingdom\u2019s dependence on the US for its security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some quarters, it was seen as more evidence of rash decision-making by Bin Salman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seth Binder \u2013 director of advocacy of Pomed, a group that supports democracy in the Middle East \u2013 said he believed Kirby\u2019s remarks demonstrated a genuine sense of frustration from inside the administration at Saudi Arabia\u2019s Opec+ decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis could become a watershed moment \u2013 barring a change in Saudi policy \u2013 similar to [Bin Salman allegedly ordering] the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, particularly for Congress, that forces a shift in the US relationship towards Saudi Arabia,\u201d Binder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Democratic senator and a member of Congress \u2013 Richard Blumenthal and Ro Khanna \u2013 expressed similar sentiments in an opinion piece for Politico that also accused Saudi Arabia of undermining US efforts and helping to boost Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Saudi decision was a pointed blow to the US, but the US also has a way to respond: it can promptly pause the massive transfer of American warfare technology into the eager hands of the Saudis,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSimply put, America shouldn\u2019t be providing such unlimited control of strategic defence systems to an apparent ally of our greatest enemy \u2013 nuclear bomb extortionist Vladimir Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While similar proposals have failed in the past, Blumenthal and Khanna said \u201cintense bipartisan blowback to Saudi Arabia\u2019s collusion with Russia\u201d meant that \u201cthis time is different\u201d. Their piece followed a call last week by Chris Murphy, another Democratic senator, for a \u201cwholesale re-evaluation of the US alliance with Saudi Arabia\u201d and Tom Malinowski, a New Jersey Democratic congressman, introducing legislation to withdraw US troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his statement, Menendez suggested he did not support an outright ban on all support, saying he would block all arms sales and security cooperation \u201cbeyond what is absolutely necessary to defend US personnel and interests\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute, commended Menendez\u2019s statement but said that to have \u201cmaximum impact\u201d, the cut-off ought to cover \u201call weapons transfers, spare parts, and maintenance to the Saudi military\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn addition, a suspension should be tied not just to Saudi Arabia\u2019s ties with Russia or stance on the Ukraine war, but also to pressing the Saudis to refrain from airstrikes on Yemen and to fully lift its blockade on that nation as a step towards good faith negotiations to end the conflict,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Khalid Aljabri, whose father, Saad, is an exiled senior Saudi intelligence official, said the \u201cweaponisation\u201d of oil was likely to have a broader impact on the US-Saudi relationship, as ordinary Americans would probably begin feeling the effects of Opec+\u2019s decision at the gas pump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aljabri said it was not clear whether congressional anger seemed more potent than the Biden administration\u2019s own stance because Democrats had more to lose ahead of November\u2019s critical midterm elections, or whether the White House and Congress were playing a game of \u201cgood cop, bad cop\u201d in attempts to influence the kingdom\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEither way, they tried appeasement and fist bumps and it didn\u2019t work. [Bin Salman] only understands the language of power. It is high time the Biden administration acts like the senior partner in this relationship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Biden administration has said it is ready to consider tough new measures against Saudi Arabia after its decision last week to side with Vladimir Putin and cut oil production. Observers said the move signalled a dramatic abandonment of the US president\u2019s recent attempts to seek a rapprochement with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,6728,5569,5522,8348,5178,7099,5443,10387,9649,3189,8700,7489,5145,10767,6693,8051,5262,11606,913,2825,6576,911,6732,12027,3577,5491,5252,2471,6213,6030,7458,8719,8482,5572,5382,7693,8000,2323,6666,5441,8159,3805,71,8928,3457,5217,8160,1364,5655,5752,8501,6082,9247,11068,12151,6675,9178,5180,5521,6348,12992,11331,694,3076,5251,5724,6571,2982,3954,10415,594,5509],"class_list":["post-26410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-alliance","tag-arab","tag-arms","tag-ban","tag-biden","tag-bipartisan","tag-bomb","tag-campaign","tag-capitol","tag-capitol-hill","tag-cartel","tag-chairman","tag-cia","tag-conflict","tag-congress","tag-consumers","tag-cut","tag-democracy","tag-democratic","tag-democratic-party","tag-democrats","tag-election","tag-emirates","tag-freeze","tag-future","tag-gas","tag-invasion","tag-joe-biden","tag-john-kirby","tag-journalist","tag-khashoggi","tag-middle-east","tag-midterm-election","tag-military","tag-murder","tag-national-security","tag-negotiations","tag-new-jersey","tag-nuclear","tag-oil","tag-opec","tag-president","tag-putin","tag-quincy","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-security","tag-security-council","tag-senate","tag-senator","tag-spare","tag-spare-parts","tag-suspension","tag-technology","tag-troops","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-war","tag-us","tag-us-allies","tag-us-president","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-vladmir-putin","tag-war","tag-weapons","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-will","tag-work","tag-who","tag-yemen"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}