Biden’s Opec+ humiliation a boon for rivals
Robert Delaney says the US president’s dealings with the ‘pariah’ Saudi leader makes a mockery of calls for human rights in the oil-rich nation
The announcement by Opec+ last week that it would cut oil production underscored how many screws Russia’s Vladimir Putin has in reserve to put to a Western alliance that is supporting Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian invaders.
Spare some pity for US President Joe Biden, who squandered much of his moral credibility earlier this year by meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, fist-bumping the leader of a nation that he once pledged to make a “pariah” over Riyadh’s human rights record.
The US Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Salman, also known by his initials MBS, ordered the strangulation and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul in 2018, and – unlike his immediate predecessor – Biden trusts the US government’s intelligence officials.
But, in a testament to how large China’s “no limits” support of Putin looms as an existential threat, he saw diplomatic engagement with the Saudi leader as necessary to bring Riyadh closer to a Western alliance increasingly at odds with Moscow and Beijing. With the Opec decision, we have seen how much regard Salman has for Western appeals.
High marks go to Biden for building such strong consensus in the West on Ukraine. Unfortunately, his average gets dragged down for not seeing what should have been abundantly clear about MBS: he is just as threatened by Biden’s vision of a world order based on democracy and political rights as Putin and Xi Jinping.
The Opec decision is also a bonanza for the US Republican Party, not only because of the damage that higher energy prices will inflict on the Democrats’ prospects in next month’s midterm elections.
With much of the Republican Party still under the thrall of former president Donald Trump – who cannot utter a negative comment about Putin regardless of how many civilian Ukrainian bodies emerge in the wake of retreating Russian soldiers – they cannot but celebrate a victory for a leader that stands for Christian nationalism, undermines faith in democracy and demonises the LGBTQ community.
[MBS] is just as threatened by Biden’s vision of a world order based on democracy and political rights as Putin and Xi
Their support for Putin remains muted because such a position, contrasted against images of Ukrainian children in mass graves, would alienate too many voters. Instead, we get more nuanced arguments, such as Senator Marco Rubio’s in his interview with CNN last week, in which he warned that Nato’s continued supply of weapons to Ukraine – and by extension Biden’s entire strategy to subdue Putin – risks a nuclear response by Putin against Poland.
Kudos to Rubio for understanding that support for any war effort requires careful deliberation, especially in a conflict that has led to thousands of civilian deaths. But why now, amid the most violent assault against the US-led post-World War II order, would any Republicans want to pause and reflect.
Ronald Reagan’s iconic “tear down this wall” speech in Berlin in 1987? That moment bolstered the legitimacy of the Republican Party for a generation, but has apparently faded in the memories of Rubio and others in the party that used to portray Democrats as foreign policy wimps.
Meanwhile, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who told us earlier this year to respect Putin as the Russian leader was massing along Ukraine’s border, called for “nuance” in an October 3 interview with Fox News. There’s that word again, one that is never invoked by Republicans when it comes to America’s domestic culture wars or when talking about China.
He also argued that US negotiations with the Kremlin should “give the space that is needed, and ultimately resolve this in a way that defends what Vladimir Putin attempted to take through pure aggression”.
Space and nuance was how Washington and Nato responded to Putin’s 2014 invasion and annexation of Crimea. That ultimately brought us to the war that he started in February, based on allegations of Nazism and other stupefying claims needed to mask the Russian leader’s ultimate goal of restoring an empire.
But the empire that Putin envisions, built on deeply conservative Christian values, is one that many in the Republican Party have worked hard to build in the US. So as their spiritual leader in Moscow faces grave prospects, we will hear more from them about negotiating space, restraint and nuance.