WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The Biden
administration has cancelled a meeting between the United States and Saudi Arabia that was previously under review, the news platform Semafor reported, citing a letter from the American embassy in Riyadh.
The meeting that was reportedly cancelled was the U.S.-GCC Working Group, which would have focused on integrated air and missile systems.
“The Embassy of the United States of America presents its compliments to the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council Secretariat and hereby informs the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council that United States officials will not be able to participate in the planned meetings of the United States – Persian Gulf Cooperation Council Working Group Integrated Air and Missile Defense,” the letter read, as reported by Semafor.
The cancelling of the meeting appears to be a major follow-through of the administration’s announcement earlier on Tuesday, when national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. would be reviewing its relationship with Saudi Arabia, following a decision by OPEC+ to cut the production of oil by two million barrels a day.
“I would expect that the multilateral, mid-level engagements you’re referring to will be rescheduled at some point,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in response to a reporter’s question during a news briefing on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden said there would be “consequences” for Saudi Arabia following the decision by the OPEC+, in which Riyadh is a top producer.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Biden said he would soon take unspecified action and that OPEC+ had “aligned” with Russia to slash output.
“There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia,” he said. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be consequences.”
The remarks came after Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the United States must immediately freeze all cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including arms sales to the country.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said a policy review would be conducted with regards to relations with Saudi Arabia but gave no timeline for action or information on who would lead the re-evaluation. The United States will be watching the situation closely “over the coming weeks and months,” she said.
Last week, OPEC+ approved its deepest cuts to the production of oil since 2020 at a meeting in the Austrian capital, Vienna, curbing supply in an already tight market despite pressure from the United States and others to pump more. The 2-million-barrel cut per day is equal to 2 percent of global supply.