The ties between USA and Saudi Arabia are severed due to the Russian invasion of Ukrainian war.

The relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia comes straight out of a reality tv show, where the couple, first has a bad break up, after which they end up in bed and the process repeats itself. The latest state of their relationship is that president Biden reaching out, to the crown prince, but he’s not returning his calls. It has gotten to the point where Mohammed bin Salman or MBS, for short, has even said, that he does not care if Biden misunderstands him and that he only cares, about Saudi interests.

So clearly Saudi Arabia is not too keen, to reconcile, with Biden right now, which brings up the question, why does Biden even want to, in the first place? Well, this all stems from the ban on Russian oil and gas by the US and the UK and the ever-increasing oil prices, that have been increasing since last year, but due to the situation in Ukraine, they are getting completely out of control.

So Biden’s plan, was to hurt Russia with an Oil and Gas ban and then to ask Saudi Arabia and the UAE, to increase their oil exports, to reduce the price per barrel. However, earlier in March the leaders of oil-producing countries, known as OPEC, already came together and they decided, that there was no need to increase oil output, since the fundamentals in the oil market, had not changed. By which they meant, we don’t care about the situation in Ukraine or about punishing Russia.

opec countries, Alamy

Now for the Saudis, the reluctance to help the west and in particular the United States, goes even deeper, since a lot has happened in recent years. You see with Trump, the US had a friendly relationship with the Saudis, since he did not even criticise them, during the Khashoggi incident and they signed a major arms deal while he was in office. However, Trump was also friendly towards Putin and Erdogan, which allowed them, to do whatever they wanted.

With Biden, the US took a hard stance against Saudi Arabia, for what happened to Khashoggi and it seems, that this is now making it impossible to get the Saudis on board or just in a meeting room, to discuss possible collaboration. This problem is made even worse, since many of Biden’s own party members don’t even want him, to reach out to Saudi Arabia and they definitely don’t want him to make a deal, with the kingdom.

oil price, tradingeconomics

Now my personal opinion on the green agenda, that some of Biden’s colleagues are pushing, is irrelevant, however, what is relevant is how other world leaders are viewing it. Because it seems, that the negative sentiment around fossil fuels and the aggressive way in which some, want to reduce oil dependence in the middle east, is having a real impact on international relations, which is obviously understandable. You can’t spit in someone's face and then expect them to help you.

So it’s clear, that the UAE and Saudi Arabia are currently annoyed with the leadership and the direction that the US is heading in and even though they are not explicitly siding with Russia, they are definitely not siding with the west. This means, that as long as the Saudis, don’t wanna make a deal with Biden, his only real options are Venezuela and Colombia, which are perhaps even more problematic than Saudi Arabia when it comes to his base.
You see Venezuela, is actually a close friend of Russia or should I say was, since they seem to be very eager, to make a deal with the US. The reason for their eagerness is that even though Venezuela has massive oil reserves, it is still a very poor country and its economy is a complete disaster. Add to this, the fact, that Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is in a state of disrepair, which has even led to the crazy situation, where at one point Venezuela was importing oil from Iran, to keep up with production needs.

venezuela GDP, statistia

So all of this shows, just how complicated international politics are and it will be interesting to see, how this will affect the 2024 presidential election when Biden and Trump will most likely face each other again. This was, “The ties between the USA and Saudi Arabia are severed due to the Russian invasion of Ukrainian war.”