The Biden administration says they will "reevaluate" the United States relationship with Saudi Arabia, after the oil producing country decided to cut production. Reuters. Saudi Arabia, along with OPEC, decided to cut production considerably to keep oil prices high. The Biden administration said the Saudis were "in league" with Russia, who supported the decisions. Some Democrats, including Senator Bob Menendez, argued for a complete end to all cooperation with the Saudis, including arms sales. Biden does not have a good personal leadership with the Saudi government and has attacked them for the death of Jamal Khashoggi. It is unclear what actions Biden can even take since Saudi Arabia is a key ally against the threat that Iran poses.
My Comment:
Though there is much to criticize about Joe Biden, I think it is his foreign policy that has been the biggest failure. Of course most of the attention has gone to Afghanistan and Russia, for obvious reasons, but it's important to note that he has single handedly destroyed the relationship we had with Saudi Arabia, one of our most important and strategic allies.
And he did it for basically no reason. For some reason, Biden decided to throw away our relationship with a critical ally over Jamal Khashoggi. Though I am sure that Khashoggi was killed by the Saudis, I never understood why we should ever have cared. The Saudis have done way worse stuff than killing some idiot that wrote for the Washington Post.
It's an utter shame because we were closer to Saudi Arabia than ever when Trump was President. He got them to agree to normalization with Israel, which was utterly amazing. The Saudis had a close relationship Trump and they trusted him.
But it's clear that they absolutely hate Biden. This was not about Russia at all, it was about how much they are disgusted with Biden. They want prices to remain high so his party gets slammed in the midterms. I don't blame them for it, Biden has been nothing but a thorn in their sides.
I don't know what Biden could actually do to hurt the Saudis back for hurting his party's chances in November. My guess is that they will probably cut off some support for the war in Yemen, where a ceasefire recently end. The Yemen war is fairly unpopular and it's an open secret that the Americans have been helping the Saudis under the table.
But I don't think much else will be done. The Saudis really do hold all the cards here. They are the ones that can cut us off from fuel supplies and make our current crisis a hundred times worse. They also know that they are the lynchpin in any US plan for a war with Iran, without Saudi support, the Iranians could probably do what they want. I am guessing that Biden will release a strongly worded statement and nothing much else would happen.
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