of that american-based journalist and when pressed multiple times press secretary karine jean-pierre refused to address it directly. i mean, the question is why? is it an inconvenient truth as they head into what is a very important meeting for the u.s. especially at a time of very, very high oil prices? it is. saudi arabia is a swing producer of oil and so far it s sort of denied u.s. and european requests to up its oil output to offset the difficulties of getting oil out of russia at the moment, particularly for the european users. so this is an awkward moment. president biden went in on the campaign trail saying he was going to paint saudi arabia as a pariah state. the saudis expected the first year of the relationship with a new white house administration, they expected it to be a tough ride. they didn t expect it to get this bad. now they find themselves in a position of being a very
to achieve this, the coalition against it needs the staying power to maintain and even ratchet up sanctions and embargoes against moscow. and that is only conceivable in a scenario in which energy prices come down from their current highs. if oil prices remain over $100 a barrel, and they can easily go much higher, europe will soon enter a recession and the entire global economy will see a drop-off of growth, and political backlash against the sanctions. this would almost certainly mean the collapse of the coalition against russia as countries would search for ways to gain cheaper energy. that is surely vladimir putin s hope. the only plausible path to keep the pressure on russia while not crippling the global economy is to get oil prices down and the only sustainable way to do this is to get the world s largest swing producer, saudi arabia, as
against russia as countries would search for ways to gain cheaper energy. that is surely vladimir putin s hope. the only plausible path to keep the pressure on russia while not crippling the global economy is to get oil prices down and the only sustainable way to do this is to get the world s largest swing producer, saudi arabia, as well as other gulf states such as the uae and kuwait, to increase production of oil. american oil production is expanding as fast as it can. there are other paths worth trying such as easing the embargo on venezuela and returning to the iran nuclear deal. but the dove states can easily expand production by millions of barrels a day and keep those supplies flowing well into the future. yet, despite several new treaties by the united states, saudi arabia and the uae have refused to significantly increase production. and that brings us to the central issue, mohammad bin salman, the crown prince of saudi arabia. in the past biden has called saudi arabia a paria
financing. what is all that i do? it not only emboldens nations that hate us, oil-producing nations like iran and russia, two of our biggest threats. they were and still are. but it enriched these nations. i wouldn t he do it oil prices now, we were the number one oil producer in the world. we were the swing producer. that means we controlled oil prices on the world stage because we had us a nation excess production. but now oil at a seven year high last week i made was above $92 a barrel, we are sending money and power into putin s hands. what did joe biden say? russia will face severe economic consequences. what do you mean well? why not now? why are we being proactive with sanctions? you move troops to the border, we are going after you. we ll lay the sanctions on when
if you are watching in california, your average is $4.71 a gallon and that s painful for millions of americans. tens of millions of americans and it s putting major pressure on president biden to do something about it and one thing that he wants to do is to get saudi arabia to produce more oil. but will the saudis do it? nic robertson is out front. reporter: at the gas pump, prices up. reaching eye-watering levels. saudi arabia, a swing producer and other opec nations are upping output. but not enough to bring down prices. oil now $80 a barrel, almost doubling on a year ago. president joe biden is hinting the saudis and others want something in return. gas prices relate to a foreign policy initiative that is about something that goes beyond the cost of gas. there is a lot of middle eastern folks want to talk to me. uh-huh.