Top US senator warns Saudi Arabia over oil price war with Russia
SAUDI ARABIA/USA The strategic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia may change if Riyadh does not end its oil price war with Russia, a leading US senator from oilrich Alaska state has said.
“The Saudis have really brought in a supply shock at exactly the wrong time,” Republican Senator Dan Sullivan told the CNBC network on Wednesday. “These kind of crises really make it clear … who your friends are and who aren’t your friends.” Sullivan told CNBC a group of US senators has written to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman (MBS) and held a conference call with the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
“All of the senators who were on that letter, on that conference call with the ambassador, have been strong supporters of the USSaudi relationship,” Sullivan said. “That is going to change if the Saudis don’t start playing a more constructive role with regard to energy markets.” Sullivan said he reminded the Saudi ambassador of the US’s role in defending the kingdom. “We have been there for you ... First Gulf War, Saddam Hussein is getting ready to roll through your country. It wasn’t the Saudi military that stopped him ... It was the First Marine Division, 82nd Airborne. Americans died in that war,” Sullivan said he told her.
The US politician’s remarks came as the US hoped to intervene to end the SaudiRussia oil price war. Last month, a three-year supply pact between the Saudiled Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies led by Russia fell apart after Moscow refused to support Riyadh’s plan for deeper production cuts to offset dwindling demand resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. As Saudi Arabia and Russia started to flood the market with oil following the collapse of the deal, prices fell by roughly twothirds an 18year low due to poor demand and the global spread of the pandemic. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest crude exporter, on Wednesday ramped up the price war, boosting crude oil supply to a record 18.8 million barrels on a single day despite pressure from Washington.
(Al Jazeera)