Joe Biden had to eat a lot of crow over his fist-bump with Mohammed Bin Salman in Riyadh yesterday. Did it pay off with at least some relief on gas prices at the pump? According to Biden, the Saudis have agreed to pump more oil …sorta, maybe
After going to Saudi Arabia to beg them for more oil, Joe Biden says it will “begin shortly.”
Not a word about American energy production. pic.twitter.com/cIH9fcRSrr
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 15, 2022
We had a good discussion on ensuring global energy security and adequate oil supplies to support global economic growth. That will begin shortly. And I’m doing all I can to increase the supply for the United States of America, which I expect to happen. The Saudis share that urgency and based on our discussions today, I expect we’ll see further steps in the coming weeks.
That sounds pretty vague and not at all close to a commitment to specific output increases. And that’s because Biden didn’t get any, as the Saudis made more clear on their own readout (via Nick Arama):
A joint statement after the event, released by Saudi Arabia, made no mention of oil supply increases but said the two countries “renewed their commitment towards the stability of global energy markets” and that the US “welcomed the kingdom’s commitment to support balance in the global oil market”.
The Saudi reading of the Biden-MbS meeting is more circumspect. Adel Al-Jubeir, a top Saudi diplomat briefing afterward, said that Riyadh will produce more oil **if it sees a shortage** (that’s a long standing Saudi policy). And he indicated Riyadh will work via OPEC+ | #OOTT
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) July 15, 2022
In other words, the Saudis committed to business as usual rather than any concessions to Biden. Why? For one thing, the Saudis respect leverage, and Biden’s lost most of his, as former Saudi ambassador Turki al-Faisal told CNBC on Friday. Biden’s plan to kill fossil fuels has blown up in his face and the Saudis know a beggar when they see one:
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Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Friday, Prince Turki Al-Faisal said Biden was coming in as a “much diminished president” compared with when he was inaugurated in January 2021.
“As an example, on energy issues, he came in with a policy to stop completely fossil fuel usage not only in the United States, but worldwide, and now he is finding himself having to rely on fossil fuels as a means of meeting the energy shortage that has come about, not only because of the Ukraine war, but also because of U.S. policy itself that shut down pipelines and stopped issuing … discovery of oil on U.S. soil,” he said.
Add to that the attempt by Biden to recalibrate American policy to Tehran with another Iran deal, and one can see why the Saudis didn’t take Biden’s energy needs terribly seriously. Also, as CNN reported later, Biden claims that he opened the talks with MBS by accusing the Saudi crown prince of masterminding the murder of Jamal Khashoggi — which MBS almost certainly did. MBS was ready for that accusation and slapped back at Biden:
In a quickly arranged speech after Biden’s bilateral talks with MBS, the President said he raised Khashoggi’s murder at the start of the meeting.
“With respect to the murder of Khashoggi, I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think of it now,” Biden told reporters. “I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my view crystal clear.”
Sure he did .. after first fist-bumping MBS. MBS had a few gripes to shoot right back at Biden, too
In the meeting, Bin Salman, also known as MBS, denied responsibility for the killing of Khashoggi at the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate. Biden said he inidicated that he disagreed with MBS, based on US intelligence assessments, according to the source.
In response to Biden bringing up Khashoggi, MBS cited the sexual and physical abuse of prisoners at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison by US military personnel and the May killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the occupied West Bank as incidents that reflected poorly on the US, the source said.
So what was accomplished? Biden didn’t get any more oil production commitments. He didn’t make MBS a “pariah,” let alone Saudi Arabia; in fact, by fist-bumping MBS, Biden made the Saudi crown prince look like a friend. He might have made it tougher for the Saudis to move toward Israel in a more public way by accusing the Israelis of being oppressors in his West Bank speech yesterday in his implication that they were akin to British oppressors in Ireland.
Biden would have been better off going to Texas. We have plenty of oil, and the only thing holding back production and refining is Biden himself.
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