Johnson urged to help broker oil deal with Saudis after Crown Prince snubs Biden call
BORIS JOHNSON is facing pressure to urge Saudi Arabia to release more oil after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman refused to take a call from Joe Biden.
Prince Mohammed reportedly rebuffed the US president’s request to talk as he seeks immunity over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Relations between “MBS”, as the Crown Prince is known, and Mr Biden have been strained since the 2020 US election campaign when Mr Biden said the Saudis should “pay the price” for Khashoggi’s death.
Khashoggi, a Saudi Arabian journalist who criticised its leadership, was killed after entering a Saudi consulate in 2018. Prince Mohammed is the subject of various US lawsuits related to the death.
With Western countries declaring their intention to phase out Russian oil and gas imports, there is an attempt to ensure supplies from elsewhere increase to counter sharp increases in price. The price of oil recently hit its highest point in 14 years at $130 a barrel.
The Prime Minister is believed to have a closer personal relationship with Prince Mohammed than Mr Biden, with the pair having previously exchanged messages over Whatsapp.
The Mr Johnson and the Crown Prince talked only last month about “energy co-operation” as concerns about Russia’s intention towards Ukraine were mounting.
No10 said that in the call on Feb 11, before Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine, the pair “welcomed defence and security collaboration between the UK and Saudi Arabia”.
There was also a line suggesting a meeting could soon be arranged, reading: “The Prime Minister and Crown Prince looked forward to meeting in person at the earliest opportunity.”
Tory MPS last night suggested that Mr Johnson could use his connections with the Saudis to solve the Biden impasse and convince the country to release oil reserves.
Andrew Murrison, who served as Middle East minister until February 2020, said: “The energy crunch means that jurisdictions are going to have to look further afield for continuity of supply, which may mean some compromises. But we have to judge very often the lesser of a number of evils.
“The UK has always maintained a positive relationship with Saudi Arabia based on dialogue. I’m sure that will be useful in the current context.”
Steve Baker, a Tory MP who helped set up the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, said: “Boris has come into his own during this crisis. Now would be just the moment for him to help deliver more flows of oil and gas from Saudi Arabia so we can shut down Putin’s war machine sooner.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mr Johnson continued to see Saudi Arabia as a “partner” for the UK. US officials told The Wall Street Journal that the White House tried to reach the Crown Prince and the UAE’S Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan in recent weeks, but both declined to talk.
“There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,” a US official told the paper. “It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”
The relationship between Riyadh and Washington has been put under stress by issues such as the war in Yemen, the resurrected Iranian nuclear deal and the killing of Khashoggi.
Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered by a Saudi government hit squad in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in December 2018. The CIA concluded that the killing was likely to have been ordered by the Crown Prince.
The 36-year-old said in an interview with The Atlantic that it was “obvious” he had not ordered it. “It hurt me a lot,” he said. “It hurt me and it hurt Saudi Arabia, from a feelings perspective.”