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The United States has reportedly stopped asking Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to combat market disruption from Russia’s war with Ukraine as relations between the US and the oil-rich kingdom are said to have hit a new low.
President Biden’s National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, brought up the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which angered the crown prince so much that he told Sullivan he should never do it again mention and forget Saudi Arabia’s increase in its oil production, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday,
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman smiles as he attends the 2018 Future Investment Initiative Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Prince Mohammed has denied any knowledge of the operation that led to Khashoggi’s death. (AP)
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The report says the Biden administration has since urged Saudi Arabia to increase production as gas prices in the United States soar amid Russia’s war with Ukraine and talks have gone nowhere.
A senior US official told The Wall Street Journal that the White House has now stopped calling for more oil production from Saudi Arabia and is only demanding that the country avoid actions that harm US interests in Ukraine.
The Saudis reportedly canceled a visit to a senior military delegation from the Biden administration last summer and canceled a visit to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last fall and Secretary of State Antony Blinken last month.
President Joe Biden blows the whistle to mark the start of a race during the Easter Egg Roll at the White House Monday, April 18, 2022 in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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Despite the perceived tensions, a Saudi official at the country’s embassy in Washington told The Wall Street Journal the relationship between the two nations remains strong, cordial and respectful.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News.
Karl Rove, a former aide to George W. Bush, told Fox News on Tuesday that a recent skit mocking Biden on Saudi television was a signal of the rift between the two countries, also widened by the nuclear arms talks the Biden administration has tightened trade with Iran.
“It’s not because of personal relationships, it’s because of the actions we’ve taken that they don’t like,” Rove said. “We have scaled back military aid, which they consider vital. We have started negotiations with Iran, their nemesis, to resume the so-called nuclear deal.”
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Rove continued: “I think the bigger issues are those three and they feel that over the past year and a half the new government has not worked with them but is working against their country’s interests. And they don’t understand why – they consider themselves a strong ally and they know that we want help from them on energy issues and they can’t understand why we have big issues on all these: Yemen, Iran, nuclear deal and military aid towards Saudi Arabia was less than accommodating in this administration.
A President Joe Biden sticker is placed on a gas pump at an Exxon gas station March 9, 2022 in Lakewood, Colorado. (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
After a brief slump, gas prices in the United States are expected to rise again, with the national average potentially reaching $4.20 a gallon, according to an industry expert.
The White House continues to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for the price spike that began well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine some 50 days ago.
“I know families are still struggling with higher prices. I grew up in a family where we sensed when the price of gas went up,” Biden said tweeted Wednesday. “Let’s be absolutely clear why prices are high right now: COVID and Vladimir Putin.”