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POTUS, Congress to ‘re-evaluate’ US-Saudi relations: NSC spokesman Kirby

Last week’s decision of OPEC+ to cut oil production prompted US President Joe Biden to begin re-evaluating the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia, said White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday.

“I think the president’s been very clear that this is a relationship that we need to continue to re-evaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit,” he said in an interview with CNN. “And certainly in light of the OPEC decision, I think that’s where he is.”

According to Mr Kirby, President Biden was disappointed with the OPEC+ decision, and “he’s willing to work with Congress to think through what that [US-Saudi] relationship ought to look like going forward.”

The day before, Democratic Senator and chair of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Menendez, called for a freeze on co-operation with Saudi Arabia, including on most arms sales, and accused the kingdom of helping to underwrite the Russian war in Ukraine after OPEC+ announced last week that it would cut oil production. The reduction immediately resulted in crude oil prices going up.

“And I think he’s going to be willing to start to have those conversations right away. I don’t think this is anything that’s going to have to wait or should wait, quite frankly, for much longer,” Mr Kirby added. The spokesman also said that this issue does not only concern the war in Ukraine but is a matter of US national security interest.

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