Washington DC October 12 2022: President Joe Biden said there would be “consequences” for Saudi Arabia over the decision by OPEC+ to slash production, a move the administration says will benefit Russia by propping up oil prices.
“When the House and Senate gets back, they’re going to have to — there’s going to be some consequences for what they’ve done, with Russia,” Biden said Tuesday in a interview with CNN.
OPEC+ last week announced plans to slash output by 2 million barrels a day. The move angered the White House and Congress and highlighted a widening split between the Kingdom and the US. Lawmakers from both parties called for measures to punish Saudi Arabia.
Asked if it was time for the US to rethink it’s relationship with the Saudis, Biden said, “Yes.”
But he declined to detail what measures were on the table. “I’m not going to get into what I’d consider and what I have in mind. But there will be — there will be consequences,” he said.
Senate Foreign Relations Chair Robert Menendez, a Democrat, on Monday urged freezing all cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including arms sales.
Lawmakers have also revived legislation that would allow the US government to sue members of OPEC for manipulating the energy market. But administration officials have conceded any legislative plan is unlikely to move until after the November midterms.
The Saudi decision was also a personal blow to Biden, who visited the country in July to urge higher production that could lower gas prices for Americans. But administration officials have since downplayed the connection.
“Let’s get straight why I went,” Biden said Tuesday, adding that the trip wasn’t “about oil” but rather about making clear that the US wasn’t “going to walk away from the Middle East.”
