Washington Post: The Saudi Crown Prince threatening the United States with a painful blow
The Washington Post said in a report that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman threatened the United States with great economic pain, amid an oil dispute.
The Washington Post added that after US President Joe Biden pledged, last fall, to impose consequences on Saudi Arabia for its decision to reduce oil production amid high-energy prices and rapidly approaching elections in the United States, bin Salman threatened in particular to sever relations between the two countries, and to take economic revenge, according to a classified US intelligence document.
In public, The Washington Post noted, the Saudi government has politely defended its actions through diplomatic statements.
However, privately, the crown prince has threatened to upend the decades-old relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia, imposing significant economic costs on Washington if it retaliates with oil cuts.
According to the confidential document obtained by The Washington Post, the Saudi crown prince said in his threat that he would no longer deal with the US administration, and promised significant economic consequences for Washington.
Eight months after Biden’s statements, Saudi Arabia didn’t face any American consequences, and Mohammed bin Salman continued to communicate with senior US officials, as he did with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jeddah this week.
It is unclear whether the Saudi crown prince’s threat conveyed directly to US officials or through electronic eavesdropping, but it revealed the tension at the heart of a long-standing relationship based on oil in exchange for security.
