White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s administration is undergoing a “review” of the current U.S.-Saudi Arabia “relationship,” given the recent oil cuts announced by OPEC+.
Jean-Pierre faced numerous questions at Tuesday’s press briefing about the topic just hours after the administration canceled an in-person meeting between U.S. and Saudi officials.
BIDEN SEARCHES FOR NEW GAS PRICE MESSAGE AMID OPEC PRODUCTION CUTS
“We are reviewing where we are currently right now, and we’ll be watching closely over the coming weeks and months as well, consulting with our allies and also with members of Congress, and decisions will be made once that policy review is underway,” she said in one exchange. “I don’t have a timeline, but clearly, this is something that we’re going to closely monitor, and we have said from the beginning we need to kind of reassess and have a different relationship with Saudi Arabia — and especially after the decision that was made by OPEC+.”
In a second exchange, Jean-Pierre voiced Biden’s opinion that the OPEC+ cuts show that Saudi Arabia is actively supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“By the decision that OPEC+ made last week, they certainly are aligning themselves with Russia,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is not a time to be aligning with Russia, especially with this brutal unprecedented war that they have started in Ukraine, and we’ve been very clear about that.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
You can watch Tuesday’s briefing in full below.
