U.S. President Joe Biden is not taking last week’s decision by OPEC Plus –OPEC and Russia – to cut oil production lightly. The President has declared his intention to retaliate against Saudi Arabia for the move by taking actions that include halting arms sales to the Kingdom.
Oil prices skyrocketed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last March. This was because of the uncertainty in the markets that the invasion created, but also because the Russian government cut oil exports to Europe in retaliation for the EU’s condemnation of its invasion. The west also imposed sanctions on Russia that included its oil exports.
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And the spike in oil prices caused worldwide inflation.
In recent months President Joe Biden had been courting the Saudis in an attempt to get them to increase production in order to see a drop in oil prices. So, why did Saudi Arabia do the opposite?
Well, some think that the Saudis are interested in closer ties with Russia and so want Russia to win the war in Ukraine, something that seems less likely to happen every day. By helping Russia with its only real weapon against the rest of the world – oil blackmail – Saudi Arabia may see this as a way to ingratiate itself with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin
President Joe Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “There’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done with Russia. I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be consequences.”
Democratic Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois thinks that Saudi Arabia is doing this because it wants Russia to win the war in Ukraine. He told CNN, “Let’s be very candid about this. It’s Putin and Saudi Arabia against the United States.”
Members of the U.S. Congress have already proposed new legislation to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
