President Biden re-evaluating US relationship with Saudis after Opec decision: official
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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fist bumps US President Joe Biden upon his arrival at Al Salman Palace, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 15. — Reuters/File
President Joe Biden is re-evaluating the US relationship with Saudi Arabia after Opec+ announced last week that it would cut oil production, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.
“I think the president’s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit,” Kirby said in an interview with CNN. “And certainly in light of the Opec decision, I think that’s where he is.”
Biden is willing to work with Congress on the future of Saudi relations, Kirby added.
Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Monday, called for a freeze on cooperating with Saudi Arabia, including on most arms sales, accusing the kingdom of helping to underwrite the Russian war in Ukraine after Opec+ announced last week that it would cut oil production.
Biden was disappointed in the Opec+ decision, Kirby said, and “he’s willing to work with Congress to think through what that relationship ought to look like going forward.”
“And I think he’s going to be willing to start to have those conversations right away. I don’t think this is anything that’s going to have to wait or should wait, quite frankly, for much longer,” Kirby added.
The issue does not only concern the war in Ukraine but it is a matter of US national security interests, Kirby added.
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Comments (77) Closed
Oct 11, 2022 08:19pm
Many seemed to despise Trump when he was in office. But he supported the oil industry and oil prices were at all time lows. Trump essentially took OPEC off the board. Biden reversed most of Trumps policies and were now stuck with inflation and record high oil prices. With any luck the Republican's will take control of the USA again and energy prices will drop.
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Oct 11, 2022 08:27pm
US armament industry has more influence in Washington than the Chairman of Foreign Relations . After mid-term elections, a Republican will be the Chairman. Republicans are the darlings of Armament industry.
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Oct 11, 2022 08:30pm
Well done, Saudi Arabia.
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Oct 11, 2022 08:36pm
Biden is an unmitigated disaster. I regret voting for him. Hope republicans field someone other than Trump next time.
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Oct 11, 2022 08:39pm
Biden didn't come to Pakistan to visit flood effected people? Strange.
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Oct 11, 2022 08:40pm
The Saudis, Iranians, Emiratees and even Pakistan (under IK especially) were already hedging their bets and improving their ties with other powers, such as Russia, China and Turkey. They can see America becoming weaker under Biden and fractured, if Trump returns to power as President again.
Right this very minute, while Russian missile barrage is causing unimaginable destruction to residential areas across Ukraine cities the Crown Prince of UAE, is dining with Putin in St Petersburg.
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Oct 11, 2022 08:45pm
Biden is old. He should not try to reevaluate too many things at once. As a start just change your relationship to complicated right now.
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Oct 11, 2022 08:47pm
@Kris, Trump sold our soul to Saudis to get money. I will vote for a dog before voting for Trump. He is a disgrace.
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Oct 11, 2022 08:49pm
Saudis are not your gas station to set prices according to your wishes. It's their oil and can do whatever they want.
Do Saudis tell you to increase production of wheat, or coal or automobiles or smartphones to lower global prices? Why don't Americans drive smaller cars or switch to EV? How about that to battle climate change?
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Oct 11, 2022 09:01pm
Bidens relationship with his own voters is bad enough, just slap the Saudi's on the wrist and continue to sell them arms well above the going rate and all is forgiven.
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Oct 11, 2022 09:21pm
Good move by Biden. Every country looks out for their own interests.
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Oct 11, 2022 09:28pm
First time’s Saudi&UAE &other’s started to be the owners of their Assets &to make their own decisions.
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Oct 11, 2022 09:32pm
@acorn, in short Trump played for business while Biden plays for politics.
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Oct 11, 2022 09:37pm
Wind of change ... the outsiders have decided not to ensure anymore the USA's security.
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Oct 11, 2022 09:53pm
Biden is a gone-man for real fight. he is drastically undermined by Putin and his Ukrainian attack of no good reason.
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Oct 11, 2022 09:57pm
KSA is a menace as much as Iran, Russia and China are.
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Oct 11, 2022 10:01pm
Biden is toothless and nobody respects him
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Oct 11, 2022 10:02pm
KSA is now aligned with India and China
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Oct 11, 2022 10:03pm
House of Saud will fall like house of cards without the help of US, its intelligence and support. It may not be a bad thing after all. Hope it happens sooner than later.
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Oct 11, 2022 10:09pm
Demand for oil is projected to decrease. OPEC is looking out for their own good. Increasing production to bring down prices, so as to weaken Russia would be a stupid thing for OPEC to do.
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Oct 11, 2022 10:24pm
@Truth be told, both Biden and Trump are horrible choices.
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Oct 11, 2022 10:26pm
Look at US a world terrorist state twisting arms of Opec+. Oil production cut risk America security,. How?
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Oct 11, 2022 10:28pm
Boss is always right and we all must pay our respect. Otherwise, there is a big difference between our guesses and the calculations on the atomic scales of the super powers. We all know our limitations!! Understand this for the sake of future of our generations. The KSA should not indulge in trivial controversies and must continue with their progressive policies. Long live the world order and long live our king MBS.
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Oct 11, 2022 10:33pm
EU don’t want to boycott Russian oil and gas, because it would hurt them as much. Instead, OPEC is expected to drive down prices to weaken Russia, and in the process lose money. Why would OPEC do that.
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Oct 11, 2022 10:34pm
United we stand, divided we fall.
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Oct 11, 2022 10:55pm
Now Pakistan will have to choose from Saudi or USA. Tough call,
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Oct 11, 2022 11:01pm
relationships with other countries and world policing is for protecting self interests. No one is stopping other countries to follow suit in reverse direction.
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Oct 11, 2022 11:07pm
Opec should wean itself off the American dollar and start using other currency to trade in.
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Oct 11, 2022 11:25pm
@Majid, U mean to say that any place there is floods the American president should visit that country.
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Oct 11, 2022 11:31pm
@Majid, when our own leaders did not for over a month after they started, why do you expect foreign leaders to visit?
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Oct 11, 2022 11:34pm
@Skeptic, Pakistan has to decide to whom to vote at UN or abstain,pressure is already being building on Pakistan through Moody &IMF for funds release &lowering country’s economic status too.
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Oct 11, 2022 11:48pm
Good luck with revaluation America - no one here cares about it.
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Oct 11, 2022 11:51pm
Bad US policy. Saudi Arabia will get closer to Russia and China, they can buy anything they want from them.
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Oct 11, 2022 11:52pm
Did USA evaluate when India decided to buy Russian Oil or when Israeli terrorist forces take innocents people land?
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Oct 12, 2022 12:00am
@Sher Jang , Progressive policies of ousting the guest workers by hooks and crooks, sure.
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Oct 12, 2022 12:08am
@acorn, go and ask republicand whatvthe hell u doing here
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Oct 12, 2022 12:09am
Go and ask replublicans what the hell r u doing here
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Oct 12, 2022 12:09am
Us realface
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Oct 12, 2022 12:14am
This guy just makes things worse, instead of working with the situation. I would believe him if he treated Israel and India the same.
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Oct 12, 2022 12:16am
After iran it's SA turn. Women need freedom there too. Or someone else will need freedom
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Oct 12, 2022 12:23am
@acorn, trump was, and is a threat to humanity.
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Oct 12, 2022 12:37am
@Texas Tariq, yes. just like Imran Khan.
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Oct 12, 2022 12:37am
@Khattak school of motoring, you know that leads to assassinations of heads of state or regime changes by USA.
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Oct 12, 2022 12:44am
No re- evaluations, instead damage control exercises needed. Let first lift all sanctions on oil worldwide, as oil is an essential product. Both China & Russia are ready to fill the vacuum if US retreat. America first policy should be adopted. A stop loss foreign policy is desired with ME, and China. But only Russia need no concessions, all help to Ukraine must continue, until Russia leaves.
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Oct 12, 2022 12:46am
@dAANISH, Not exactly. KSA Policy is not good in long run.
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Oct 12, 2022 12:47am
To be on wrong side of USA is going to be trouble for the house of saud. Spring revolution coming soon.
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Oct 12, 2022 12:58am
If it results in the end of ‘occupation’ that would be good.
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Oct 12, 2022 01:23am
When the oil runs out Saudis will be back to be desert nomads
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Oct 12, 2022 02:14am
@Nadeem Shah USA , American discovered it. They have the technology and expertise to take it out. Rest is just a fairytale
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Oct 12, 2022 02:28am
this is an excellent development. pakistan should use this opportunity to break saudi hegemony over the "muslim world"-in favour of pakistan/malaysia/turkey
saudis and iranians are both the source of many problems
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Oct 12, 2022 02:35am
@dAANISH,
Crocodile tears, you are also paying more for Gas my friend.
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Oct 12, 2022 02:40am
Quite Frankly! policies of Biden are total disaster for USA.
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Oct 12, 2022 02:44am
Gulf countries will have tough time in around 20-25 years. Oil prices will decline a lot in that time frame. Though oil is not used only in vehicles, but most of the western world and other Cohn have a mandate to not sell any gasoline cars from 2030-35. This transition is getting faster due to oil price and techno is getting better and better. Saudi and others will then have similar situation as Iraq, etc with western world mostly shutting contacts with them.
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Oct 12, 2022 02:45am
Without America Saudis will not survive for long. Their petro-dollar economy is built by America. Any harm to US economy would be a direct attack on America.
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Oct 12, 2022 03:47am
Biden is ‘Shareefs’ of US, hence bringing down the mighty power. Now Americans who voted for him are hiding their faces.
First they tried with India and India showed them the door, now they are looking at Saudis and MBS doesn’t give a damn what Biden thinks or says. Everyone knew Trump meant business.
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Oct 12, 2022 03:50am
Pakistan is caught in cross fire to choose between usa , or Saudi. Muslim bother Saudi is better choice.
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Oct 12, 2022 03:50am
It is high time that President Biden should understand that the Saudis can NOT be trusted. They were never trustworthy before, the are not trustworthy now and they will never be trustworthy ever.
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Oct 12, 2022 03:59am
Are we going to have Western Style Democracy in Saudi Arabia?
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Oct 12, 2022 04:06am
Not good. If KSA decides to take other currencies as payment for oil, that will creat a big mess. Offcourse the Saudi Royal family and the KSA will come out as a biggest losers at the end
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Oct 12, 2022 04:22am
It's just KSA fingering the Dems and helping the Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans win overwhemgly in the upcoming US mid-term elections.
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Oct 12, 2022 04:28am
@St. Mercury, He will win again without Pakistani support.
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Oct 12, 2022 04:33am
It's probably the KSA's payback to the Dems for their negative KSA policies as they stand to lose miserably the majority in the House and parity in the Senate, due to oil price increases.
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Oct 12, 2022 05:02am
@dAANISH, did MBS say ‘absolutely not’? Is a ‘foreign conspiracy’ in the works. A king Faisal type regime change..
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Oct 12, 2022 05:05am
@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad, the main menace is ‘that which cannot be named’.
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Oct 12, 2022 05:28am
The way people are cheering here at the OPEC+ decision, one would think Pakistan is an OPEC member. This is going to hurt Pakistan a lot more than it is going to hurt the USA.
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Oct 12, 2022 05:37am
United we stand, divided we fall.
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Oct 12, 2022 05:56am
@Abbas shah, I wish they start getting paid in gold, not deposit in US banks, to be frozen when uncle same dislike you.
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Oct 12, 2022 06:13am
The issue does not only concern the war in Ukraine but it is a matter of US national security interests, Kirby added.
What about saudi national interest, why should others sacrifice their own interest for Americas interest.?
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Oct 12, 2022 06:23am
_Saudi Arabia has got weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons which they are using against their iwn citizens lije Kashogi, says Biden. It is time to put an end to it.
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Oct 12, 2022 06:54am
regime change coming?
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Oct 12, 2022 06:55am
@Kris, I hate to be this guy, but Republicans have two factions, the faction with Trump is for no wars , the other one is just another side of democrat.
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Oct 12, 2022 07:37am
I am no fan of the Saudis but to be fair it was the doddery, dementia-plagued, woke bloke in the White House who used the harshest, undiplomatic language (albeit before he won the presidency) about the current strongman in Riyad over the Kashoggi murder, plus the US's unilateral hold up of aircraft/arms shipments already paid for that not surprisingly raised the hackles of the Kingdom. So, yes, Biden's "re-evaluation" needs to include introspection about his own blunder.
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Oct 12, 2022 07:52am
Expect Saudia to destabilize soon. America can use their dollar power to sanction anyone, but others can’t do that. Trading in any currency other than the USD usually results in declaration of war by the US
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Oct 12, 2022 08:05am
More trouble for us and our imported hakoomat in that the massive Rs 10 "relief" on petrol Mr Dar gave us recently will soon be gone.
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Oct 12, 2022 10:38am
@Jigen.m19, "Trading in any currency other than the USD usually results in declaration of war by the US"
Really?? That means Iran and Russia are already in a real war with the US, because they have been trading oil for hard currencies of their own, instead of the USD.
So what is the US doing about it??
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Oct 12, 2022 11:36am
And the Saudis would keep on licking the shoes of Uncle Sam..
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Oct 12, 2022 04:34pm
@acorn, price of oil is too low. Which is good (personal view) but bad for nations depending on oil revenue. Yes Russia will benefit. Yes this will anger USA. But oil prices are not about USA and Russia or Ukraine. Opec is not about USA Russia and Ukraine
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