Pak Sahafat – Analysts and critics of US President Joe Biden’s administration believe that Biden’s efforts to prosecute Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over human rights issues have failed, following the tensions between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the White House over the reduction of oil production.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency’s report, the website of NBC News wrote in this context: The recent decision of OPEC+ to reduce oil production was a predictable blow to the Biden administration.
Following OPEC+’s announcement to cut 2 million barrels of oil per day, which could further increase natural gas prices, the White House warned without further explanation that the move would have “consequences” for the oil-rich country in the Middle East.
OPEC+’s decision to cut oil production could also help Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, finance the war in Ukraine.
According to this report, from the point of view of some, the decision of OPEC+, which consists of 13 oil exporting countries, which is chaired by Saudi Arabia, showed that Biden’s efforts to reset relations between Washington and Riyadh during his visit to Riyadh earlier this year were doomed to failure.
Saudi human rights activist Khalid al-Jaberi criticized Biden’s efforts to follow through on his promises to isolate the Saudi crown prince because of his role in the assassination of Arab writer Jamal Khashoggi and the failure of his efforts to prevent the reduction of Oil production pointed out and added: Saudi Crown Prince Bin Salman has no motivation to change his behavior.
Immediately after announcing his candidacy, Biden promised to cancel the blank check that Donald Trump’s administration gave to Saudi Arabia in the Yemen war, which led to the deaths of thousands of people.
Bin Salman has denied any knowledge or involvement of Khashoggi as one of his most prominent critics inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Washington Post writer was killed by agents working for Bin Salman. According to an American intelligence report that Biden declassified after taking office, the murder of Khashoggi was not possible without the crown prince’s knowledge.
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Tension in Saudi-American relations after the OPEC+ decision
Biden, who promised before his trip to Riyadh that he would raise bin Salman’s human rights case, bumped his fist into the crown prince’s fist and met with him and other senior Saudi figures.
Lina al-Hathloul, a Saudi human rights activist, said that it was clear at that time that “nothing will be gained by the president from this trip”.
Confirming the views of this analyst, Al-Jaberi said that the Saudi Crown Prince received an award from Biden for his very unpleasant behavior with this meeting with Biden and the famous punches.
He added: OPEC+’s decision to reduce oil production was “a hostile and deliberate action with predetermined consequences.”
Sarah Lee Whitson, executive director of “Democracy Now for the Arab World” also told this media: This was a deliberate decision to hit Biden on the eve of the congressional midterm elections.
“Anne Schellin”, a researcher at the “Quincy Institute for Accountable Government” in Washington, said that Saudi Arabia is more aligned with the administration of former President Donald Trump, who placed the Saudi government at the center of its Middle East policy and supported it in its stance against Iran.
He said that if Trump wins the 2024 presidential election again, this will be good news for the Saudis. Paralyzing Biden and the Democrats in the congressional mid-term elections is certainly in line with this goal.
Shelin pointed out that the US has several options to react to the Saudis, which include stopping all arms sales of this country to Saudi Arabia and stopping security cooperation and withdrawing American forces from Saudi Arabia.
He added: In the long term, America will try to reduce its oil dependence so that the decisions of foreign oil producers no longer have an impact on changing the election results in this country.