Iran Press/ America: The Washington Post editorial board did not mince words about President Joe Biden's attempts to persuade the Saudi Arabian government into helping with US energy policy, saying the administration "failed" "badly."
The board said that OPEC – heavily influenced by the Saudis – recently slashing "crude oil production by 2 million barrels per day," is a "setback" for Biden agenda, the United States and its allies, Fox News reported.
The Saturday editorial stated that OPEC's decision "is not quite as big of a shock as the embargo OPEC imposed on the United States between October 1973 and March 1974. It is nevertheless a setback for President Biden's foreign policy and a blow to the United States and its allies on several fronts."
Further detailing how much damage this decision has done to United States interests – especially during the Russia-Ukraine War – the board added: "The move will not only create economic risks for the United States and Europe but also make it more difficult for them to implement a planned price cap on Russian oil exports in December." All of that, it said, can only help Russia in its conflict with Ukraine.
It then laid blame for all this damage squarely at the feet of Biden, saying: "There could be no more troubling evidence of how badly Biden's efforts earlier this year to mend fences with the de facto Saudi ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have failed."
The editorial was referencing the trip Biden made to Saudi Arabia this past summer where he was infamously photographed sharing a "fist bump" with the Saudi prince as they greeted one another.
Earlier this week, a New York Times report on the OPEC oil cut characterized this July meeting as "fist bump diplomacy" and claimed it was a "failure" as well.
The Washington Post editorial expressed just how much Biden's trip did not help. It stated, "Not only has MBS, as he is known, refused to raise oil production, as Mr. Biden wanted. He appears to be doubling down on hostility toward the president, in retaliation for the latter's — accurate — depiction of him as the author of Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi's murder and other human rights violations that make MBS worthy of 'pariah' status."
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