WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will be “methodical” in deciding how to respond to Saudi Arabia over oil production cuts, but options include changes in US security assistance, White House national security adviser Jack Sullivan said. said on Sunday.Speaking on , Sullivan said that no change is imminent in the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia as Biden reassessed it.”And so the president is not going to act immediately. He’s going to be methodical, strategic, and he’s going to take his time to consult with members of both parties, and give Congress a chance to come back. Ga so they can sit down with them personally and work through the options,” Sullivan said. .A day after OPEC+ oil producers announced output cuts last week over U.S. objections, Biden vowed to impose “consequences” on Saudi Arabia for siding with Russia in backing the cuts. The OPEC+ move undermines Western plans to put a cap on Russian oil export prices in response to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Senator Bob Menendez, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for an end to most US arms sales to Saudi Arabia following the OPEC+ initiative.Biden’s options include “changes in our approach to security assistance to Saudi Arabia, but I wouldn’t go beyond the president. What I would say is that nothing is imminent,” Sullivan said. added that Biden had time to consult with Congress.Sullivan said Biden has no plans to meet with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, at next month’s G20 summit in Indonesia.Asked if Biden would view Russia’s use of a small tactical nuclear weapon or a detonation in the Black Sea as less serious than a large bomb, Sullivan said it was “dangerous” to draw such distinctions, and The president will not do that.
