US President Joe Biden’s administration is seeking to smooth out the current relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia. Jake Sullivan and Anthony Blinken will be sent to the kingdom, Bloomberg writes.
almayadeen.net
United States Assistant to the President for Homeland Security Sullivan intends to meet with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India next week. He also intends to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
After Sullivan, the US will send Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to the kingdom in June to attend a meeting of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL*.
“The successive visits by senior US officials underscore the White House’s determination to overcome the coldness that has been acceptable to relations between Washington and Riyadh in recent times,” the publication said.
Meanwhile, as a presidential candidate, the agency recalls, Biden said he would treat Saudi Arabia as a pariah after the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, but during a personal visit last year he asked the crown prince to increase oil production under OPEC+, but in the end the kingdom decided, on the contrary, to reduce it.
“Riyadh has been a key ally of Washington in the region for decades and the current cooling is dangerous because the weakening of US influence is coupled with the growing importance of China. Saudi Arabia and its OPEC+ partners have again decided to cut production, which is not in the interests of the Biden administration, while at the same time Chinese President Xi Jinping helped broker an agreement in March to renew diplomatic relations between Iran and the kingdom,” the paper summarised.
*Terrorist organisation banned in Russia.
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