WASHINGTON (Dispatches) -- The White House has reportedly failed in its attempt to arrange calls between U.S. President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Muhammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Although the calls were intended to focus on building international support for Ukraine and the control of surging oil prices, the leaders of both Persian Gulf countries declined U.S. requests to speak to the president.
Officials have said the rejection comes as Saudi and Emirati officials voiced their criticism of American policy in the Persian Gulf in recent weeks.
Biden spoke to King Salman on February 9 and they reiterated their longstanding relationship. However, the Persian Gulf snub comes as Washington works on maintaining good relations with the oil-rich countries, as oil prices pass $130 per barrel for the first time in nearly 14 years.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the only two major oil producers that can pump millions more barrels of oil, which could help the crude market in America when gasoline prices are soaring.
However, both countries have declined to pump more oil, saying that they are sticking to the current production plan approved by OPEC+, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of allies led by Russia.
Last week, both the Saudi crown prince and Sheikh Muhammad took phone calls from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, after declining to speak to the U.S. president. They also both later spoke to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
One U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal that MBS is the chief Saudi decision maker the Biden administration will have to work with on everything from energy policy to normalizing relations with the occupying regime of Israel.
Underscoring the tension in the relations, MBS warned the U.S. against interfering in the kingdom’s internal affairs in an interview with The Atlantic published last week.
“We don’t have the right to lecture you in America. The same goes the other way,” he said. When asked whether Biden misunderstood things about him, he said, “Simply, I do not care.”
The Atlantic article - written by a journalist who had undertaken three years of travel to Saudi Arabia and had several meetings with MBS, as well as some of his critics and supporters - gives an insight into the prince’s views on China, Saudi Arabia’s relationship with the U.S., and the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
On Monday, President Biden banned imports of Russian oil and gas into the U.S. and the move was matched by a UK phase-out of Russian oil imports, but the EU did not follow suit and instead unveiled a plan to cut Russian gas imports by two-thirds within a year.
The U.S. decision opens a new front in efforts to isolate Moscow from the global economy, following moves to impose sanctions on key Russian banks, top government officials and oligarchs, as well as its central bank.
“Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at U.S. ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to Putin’s war machine,” Biden said, speaking from the White House.
But a ban on U.S. and UK imports will be far less disruptive to global markets than a full international embargo as only a small proportion of Russian shipments goes to those two markets.
The Kremlin responded by issuing an edict on Tuesday saying it would restrict the export of some commodities following the western oil bans, but did not specify details.
The ban came after days of debate within the Biden administration and between the U.S. and western allies about the merits of banning Russian energy, as well as the risk that it could trigger a new shock to global energy markets.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government said it would phase out the import of Russian oil by the end of the year.
Kwasi Kwarteng, UK business secretary, said the British government would organize