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Biden has ‘no plans’ to meet Saudi Crown Prince at G20 Summit
The White House threatened to re-evaluate its relationship with Saudi Arabia, with several options on the table, including the decrease of military support
By News Desk - October 16 2022
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US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan announced on Sunday, 16 October that US President Joe Biden has “no plans” to meet with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the next G20 summit in Indonesia.

The announcement comes shortly after OPEC+ announced it would cut oil output by 2 million barrels per day.

During a CNN interview, Jack Sullivan said that Joe Biden “has no plans to meet with the crown prince at the G20 summit,” adding that the president “is focused, however, on making sure that through every engagement that he has across the board, he’s looking out for, not just the U.S., but for our allies as well.”

Following the OPEC+ announcement, the White House went as far as to threaten a re-evaluation of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

“As for the relationship [with Riyadh] going forward, we’re reviewing a number of response options. We’re consulting closely with Congress,” US State Secretary Antony Blinken said on 6 October during a visit to Peru on Thursday.

In the hours ahead of Blinken’s comments, Democrat lawmakers in the US congress called to slash military sales to Saudi Arabia, professing a sudden concern for the brutal war in Yemen – which Washington has been fueling since 2015.

“I think it’s time for a wholesale re-evaluation of the US alliance with Saudi Arabia,” Senator Chris Murphy, chairman of the Senate foreign relations subcommittee on West Asia, told CNBC.

In his recent interview with CNN, Sullivan added that Biden “isn’t going to act precipitously, he is going to act methodically, strategically and he’s going to take his time to consult with members of both parties, and also to have an opportunity for Congress to return so that he can sit with them in person and work through the options.”

Following the accusations by the White House that Saudi Arabia is in cohorts with Russia, Saudi Arabia responded by pledging $400 million to Ukraine in various aid packages.

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