US President Joe Biden has declared that “there will be consequences” for Saudi Arabia’s decision, along with OPEC+, to cut oil production. Yet it is unlikely the US Government will act to punish Riyadh. if they do, then it will fit in as the next piece in a long saga of mob-mentality global politics.
US officials in Washington have been lashing out at Saudi Arabia in an unprecedented manner, following a decision taken by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and others (OPEC+), to reduce its oil production target. Saudi Arabia, which played a role in making this decision go through, has been accused of siding with Moscow, yet maintains that the decision was taken by all members and was purely economical.
The US Biden administration has come out of this equation as the penultimate loser, with Europe likely to suffer the worst consequences of another hike in oil prices. President Biden had maintained, during his early days in the White House, that he was out to punish Riyadh and end the war in Yemen, pledging to end all offensive and relative weapons sales to the Kingdom. There was always the seemingly intentional problem of defining what constitutes an “offensive” weapon, versus a “defensive” one, and the Biden administration took full advantage of this by continuing to allow the flow of weapons to Saudi Arabia and its regional partner the United Arab Emirates (UAE). However, despite the initial walking back of Joe Biden’s pledges, the US President did not seem to be hand-in-hand with the Saudis and Emiratis, in the way that his predecessor, Donald Trump, was.
Donald Trump’s first foreign visit was to Saudi Arabia. Not only this, but Thomas Barrack, the former President’s investor friend and informal advisor has been accused of working as an unregistered foreign agent for Abu Dhabi. Due in large part to the ongoing investigations into former President Trump, this information has largely revealed the extent to which the UAE and Saudi Arabia influenced US politics during those years. It is still unclear as to what extent the Emiratis and Saudis exert influence over the US Biden administration, but it would appear on the surface that it is much less, especially in the case of Riyadh.
However, it is clear the US Biden administration is pursuing a similar foreign policy agenda to that of his predecessor; seeking the further normalization of ties between Israel and Arab regimes, in addition to combating Iranian, Chinese, and Russian influence regionally. Despite the US Government being the self-declared master of the Arabian Peninsula in many ways, its once all-powerful position in the area, and beyond into the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, is evidently in decline. After holding off on recognizing Mohammed Bin Salman as the de-facto leader of Saudi Arabia, as the global economy began to endure the consequences of NATO’s blistering sanctions against Moscow, the US Biden administration clearly folded under pressure and decided to visit Saudi Arabia.
Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia in July, turned out to be a failed bid to secure the backing of Arab Gulf regimes for a plan to expand oil production in order to benefit the West. Biden and his delegation sat in on an Arab summit meeting where he told Middle East leaders, including the Saudis, that the US “is not going anywhere“, stating that “we [the US] will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran”. Instead of achieving Saudi normalization with Israel, a pledge to increase oil production, or even an agreement to form a regional anti-Iran air defense pact, the US delegation walked away with nothing.
The fact that the Saudis are even sticking to the OPEC+ agreement to reduce oil production targets, says it all; there is no way that Riyadh would act in such a manner if the US could do anything about it. When Adel Al-Jubeir, the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs was confronted with the question of the US breaking relations with Riyadh and whether the relationship between the two has deteriorated, during a recent interview on CNN he stated the following:
“I don’t believe this relationship is broken, very far from it. This relationship is very robust, we have almost 80,000 Americans living and working inside Saudi Arabia, we have a very strong trade and investment relationship. We work very closely in regards to insuring our common interests, whether it is to bring peace to Yemen, whether it’s to bring peace between Israelis and Arabs, whether it’s to stabilise Afghanistan, whether it’s to reintegrate Iraq into the Arab fold, whether it’s to bring stability to the horn of Africa, whether it’s to bring stability and peace in Libya and the G5 countries of the Sahel, whether it’s to fight extremism and terrorism. Those interests are permanent and those interests are tremendous.”
Although the above statement is filled with its own propagandistic twists, what can be taken from it, hence making it a very important comment from the Saudi minister, is that it admits the scale to which both the US and Saudi Arabia are committed to one another. If the US was to simply cast aside Riyadh, chaos would ensue, because of the great influence that the Saudis have picked up regionally due to being America’s proxy inside the region over the years. The only possible way to salvage the situation in Saudi Arabia and the fallout that a proper break in relations would have, would be to foster a regime change operation inside the Kingdom.
The US Biden administration is making all sorts of noise at this time, for fear of what the OPEC+ move may mean, especially right before the November midterm elections in the United States. Influential Washington based think-tanks, which have significant European State donors, have slammed the Saudi-US relationship. However, the issue for Europe and the United Kingdom right now is not Riyadh’s decision to cut oil production, prior to this move they were set to freeze regardless. Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the influential think-tank called the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote a piece for Foreign Policy Magazine recently, entitled ‘Saudi Arabia Is Not a U.S. Ally. Biden Should Stop Treating It Like One.’ Despite such flippant comments coming from think-tank “experts”, it is clear that the Saudi and US Governments are a perfect fit. The only problem here is the United States Government and its inability to manage its foreign policy in a coherent way.
Despite the abundance of horrific human rights abuses committed by the Saudi regime, they could never measure up to the terror which the US empire has visited on the world at large. Washington has no position of moral authority over anyone; if Jeffrey Epstein and Osama Bin Laden could be resurrected and elected as President and Vice President, it wouldn’t make the US regime any more morally decrepit than it already is, and anyone with a basic understanding of world events knows this. The latest great example of the lack of humanity and mob-boss mentality from the US, is the lashing out at Saudi Arabia over the OPEC+ decision on oil production. The Biden administration didn’t think to dish out “consequences” for Saudi Arabia over its continued blockade on Yemen, constant domestic human rights violations, and atrocities committed with US weapons in Yemen, but as soon as the oil market is touched at the possible expense of the US Oligarchy, come the midterms, there’s got to be “consequences”.
For those doubting whether the big rhetoric from the US Government over the OPEC+ decision is mostly about the upcoming elections, you need look no further than Biden’s apparent request to the Saudis to delay the oil production cut by one month. Working class Americans and the working masses of Europe are set to suffer this winter and the OPEC+ decision may make the situation a little worse, but the reality is that the US commitment to what its officials have admitted is a proxy war in Ukraine, along with the sanctions on Moscow, are the reason things are getting tough. After destroying half the planet with wars of aggression, proxy conflicts, and military coups, you would think that the US dominated NATO alliance would have some sort of plan that would at least prevent its own working class citizens from freezing to death when taking on Russia and China, but apparently not. The plan is to blame everyone else. The problem is not Saudi, it’s right here at home.
MBS trembles in fear!