Republicans accused the administration of US President Joe Biden of destabilizing relations with the Gulf States, following statements on “reviewing the relationship” with Saudi Arabia in the wake of the OPEC+ decision to reduce oil production.
Rep. Senator Tom Cotton said that Biden has launched a campaign “against our close friend Saudi Arabia for the benefit of our enemy Iran.”
“That’s the kind of short-sighted foreign policy that got us where we are today,” he added.
In an interview with Fox News, Cotton noted that Biden, Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have launched a campaign against Saudi Arabia more than 13 years ago by flattering Iran and reassuring “our archenemy.”
He added that Biden asked Saudi Arabia to wait until after the midterm elections to reduce oil production, adding that Democrats would do everything in their power to prevent oil prices from rising before the elections.
According to the US senator, Biden did not ask the Kingdom not to cut production, but rather to wait a month until the midterm elections were over.
For his part, Rep. Senator Lindsey Graham criticized threats by a number of Democrats to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
“Threatening weapons sales – which help protect America and our allies against common enemies – is self-defeating,” Graham said on Twitter.
“Why aren’t we producing more oil and gas? Because the Biden Administration is held hostage by the radical Left. Dangerous and sad,” he added.
Rep. Senator Joni Ernst, for her part, criticized the White House’s decision to cancel its participation in the security meeting with the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which was scheduled for next Monday to discuss air and defense cooperation.
“The US should reliably implement defense efforts and proceed with the US-GCC integrated air and missile defense working group without delay,” she said in a letter addressed to National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan.
Ernst continued: “Disrupting this momentum delays partner capacity building, worsens regional security, and aids our adversaries. It also damages trust by conditioning regional security on resolution of broader political and energy disputes, a poor precedent.”
The Republican positions came amid a campaign launched by the Democrats against the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production.
US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said that the administration tried to persuade the Kingdom to postpone the decision to cut production until the next meeting of OPEC+, that is, after the congressional midterm elections.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed that the decision of OPEC+ was purely economic and taken unanimously by all the countries of the group.
