Crisis of Trust in U.S.

Saudi, UAE Leaders Don’t Take Biden’s Call

Date: 09 March 2022 - 22:31

News ID: ۱۰۰۸۶۳

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

an “orderly transition” away from Russian oil imports. But Rishi Sunak, UK chancellor, told a cabinet meeting that consumers would pay a price for the ban, with lower-income households particularly hard hit.

The UK is less dependent on Russia than much of mainland Europe, with Russian supplies making up 8 percent of overall oil imports into the UK. Johnson is expected to make a statement later this week on reducing British imports of Russian gas.

Germany has resisted any EU prohibition on buying Russian crude. Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, said that he preferred not to impose too big a cost on German consumers. Developing alternatives to Russian energy, he said, “cannot be done overnight”.

Russia, the world’s largest exporter of crude and petroleum products, shipped almost 8mn barrels a day to global markets at the end of last year, according to the International Energy Agency.

About 60 percent of Russia’s oil exports go to Europe, including around 2 percent to the UK, while 8 percent go to the U.S. China accounts for about 20 percent.

Alexander Novak, Russia’s deputy prime minister, warned on Monday night that a potential ban could cause oil prices to more than double to $300 a barrel. He also said that Russia had the option of switching off gas supplies to Europe via the original Nord Stream pipeline, but had chosen not to so far because “no one will benefit from it”.