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Gas prices were high because oil-rich nations in the Middle East were not increasing
the supply of oil. That was happening, Biden suggested, in retaliation for his
personal decision to not speak with – nor acknowledge – Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman as his counterpart.

“Gas prices relate to a foreign policy initiative that is about

something that goes beyond the cost of gas,” Biden said at a
town hall meeting on CNN. “There’s a lot of Middle Eastern folks
who want to talk to me. I’m not sure I’m going to talk to them.”
‘Weak’ US let Saudis
jail more dissidents, [Red Herring]
says rights group Later he added: “There’s a possibility to be able to bring it down,
depends a little bit on Saudi Arabia and a few other things that
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are in the offing.”

The White House has declined to comment further on Biden’s remarks, and did not
answer the Guardian’s questions about how the apparent quid pro quo Biden
alluded to was communicated to the administration.

But experts in Washington said there was little doubt that Biden’s remarks indicated
that Saudi Arabia was demanding more personal attention from the president,
despite several high-level meetings in recent weeks between top administration
officials and their Saudi counterparts, including a recent trip by Jake Sullivan to
meet Prince Mohammed in Riyadh.

The crown prince is probably seeking a phone call similar to one he received from
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, in April 2020, when the then president
telephoned Prince Mohammed and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and
called for global deal to cut oil production. In that case, US shale companies had
been hit hard by a standoff between Russia and Saudi Arabia, and Trump later
boasted that his call helped end the apparent rupture.

The current president’s ongoing snub has reflected a campaign promise by Biden to
turn Prince Mohammed’s government into a “pariah” following the grisly murder of
the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi: a vow that he has not kept, apart
from his personal avoidance of the prince. [Scare tactics]

“Would MBS use his leverage on Biden to force the administration to back off their
position? I would say the answer is absolutely yes. MBS is notoriously thin-skinned.
He chafes under the administration’s position, even though the administration has
taken a much more modest approach than people anticipated,” said Gerald
Feierstein, the former US ambassador to Yemen.

The US president’s upcoming travels to Europe, including the UN climate change