Joe Biden has ‘no plans’ to meet Saudi

Arabia’s MBS at G20 summit

Saudi Arabia’s defence minister, meanwhile, said he is

‘astonished’ by accusations the kingdom is ‘standing

with Russia in its war with Ukraine’.

US President Joe Biden fist-bumps Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon
his arrival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in July [Bandar Algaloud/Saudi Royal Court via
Reuters]

United States President Joe Biden has “no plans” to meet with
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at next month’s G20
summit in Indonesia, a senior US official says, as tensions over the
OPEC+ decision to cut oil production continue to reverberate.

Biden will act “methodically” in deciding how to respond to Saudi

Arabia regarding the oil output cuts and options include changes to
US security assistance, White House National Security Adviser Jake
Sullivan said on Sunday.

Speaking on CNN, Sullivan said no changes to the US-Saudi

relationship were imminent as Biden re-evaluates it.

“The president isn’t going to act precipitously,” he said. “He is

going to act methodically, strategically, and he’s going to take his
time to consult with members of both parties and also to have an
opportunity for Congress to return so that he can sit with them in
person and work through the options.”

Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia are on thin ice over
the oil production cuts. Last week, the Riyadh-led OPEC cartel and
an additional group of 10 other oil producers headed by Russia
decided to reduce global output by up to two million barrels per
day from November.
The move is expected to lead to higher oil prices, which would help
Russia pay for its offensive in Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia’s defence minister said he was “astonished” by

accusations that the kingdom was “standing with Russia in its war
with Ukraine”.

Prince Khalid bin Salman said the decision by OPEC+ was taken
unanimously and for purely economic reasons. “It is telling that
these false accusations did not come from the Ukrainian
government,” King Salman’s son wrote on Twitter.

Always space for flexibility’

Biden has warned Saudi Arabia that there will be unspecified

“consequences” for siding with Russia in supporting the cuts. The
OPEC+ move undermines Western countries’ plans to impose a cap
on the price of Russian oil in response to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The move could lead to soaring energy prices, raising concerns in

Biden’s Democratic Party about how it will fare in November’s
midterm elections.

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Week in the Middle East

Washington suggested Gulf producers were aligning with Russia at

the expense of the United States and its Western allies.

Russia praised OPEC+ for agreeing to cut oil production and fight
what it called the “mayhem” sown by the US in global energy
markets.

Asked on Sunday about reviewing the output cut, OPEC’s Secretary

General Haitham al-Ghais said on Sunday “in OPEC there is always
a space for flexibility”.
He also told a news conference that OPEC+ decisions were purely
technical, and the producer group took a preemptive decision.

Arms sales halt?

The move to cut oil production has been seen as a diplomatic slap
in the face after Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with the
crown prince in July.

US Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who chairs the Senate

Foreign Relations Committee, called for a halt to most American
arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the OPEC+ move.

The US-Saudi feud bled into talks by G20 finance ministers and
central bankers in Washington, which closed on Thursday without
a joint communique. The group was already divided over the
conflict in Ukraine.

G20 heads of state and government will meet in November in Bali

for a summit that could see Biden share the same venue as
Russian President Vladimir Putin.