According to Reuters, President Joe Biden said: “there will be consequences” for Saudi Arabia following the OPEC+ decision to cut its oil production by 2% amid the current debilitating situation.
One day before the announcement, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stated that the United States must immediately freeze all cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including arms sales, says Reuters.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, announced that a policy review will be carried out but provided no timeline for action or details on who would be in charge of the re-evaluation. She stated that the United States will closely monitor the situation “over the coming weeks and months.”
According to Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the OPEC+ decision was made unanimously by its member states and was solely based on economic considerations.
On whether halted cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the United States will let Iran extend its influence and threat in the region, State Department spokesperson Ned Price stated the United States will not overlook Iran in its review of the Saudi Arabia cooperation.
“There are security challenges, some of which emanate from Iran. Certainly, we won’t take our eye off the threat that Iran poses not only to the region but in some ways beyond,” said Price.