Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman warned the US would suffer economic consequences if President Biden retaliated for OPEC oil cuts that were announced last fall, The Washington Post reported.
The Post report cited a document allegedly leaked to Discord by Airman Jack Teixeira, although it did not publish the document. The report said MbS claimed “he will not deal with the US administration anymore” if Biden imposed “consequences” on Riyadh over the OPEC cuts like he said he would.
The report said MbS promised “major economic consequences for Washington” if Biden retaliated, but it’s unclear if the Saudis made the threat directly to the US or if MbS’ warning was intercepted by the US spying on him.
It’s also unclear what economic consequences MbS had in mind. Saudi Arabia could stop trading its oil using the US dollar, which would seriously threaten the currency’s global dominance.
President Biden never went through with his vow to impose consequences on the Saudis, and his administration has been working lately to improve the relationship after Riyadh agreed to a surprise China-brokered normalization deal with Tehran. The Saudis also reestablished diplomatic relations with Damascus and spearheaded an effort to bring Syria back into the Arab League.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Saudi Arabia last week, and Saudi officials made clear that they didn’t want the administration to pressure them to pick a side between the US and China.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said at a joint press conference with Blinken that Riyadh’s ties with China would continue to grow but said the US-Saudi security relationship was still very “robust.”
“I don’t ascribe to this zero-sum game,” bin Farhan said. “I think we are all capable of having multiple partnerships and multiple engagements.”
Source: AntiWar.
