American senator: America’s relations with Saudi Arabia are not good.
Following the recent agreement between Saudi Arabia and the OPEC+ countries to reduce oil production, the American Democratic Senator called for Washington to review its military alliance with Riyadh.
In an interview with a CNN network program, US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy attacked the recent decision of the OPEC+ countries to cut two million barrels of oil production per day, which is likely to increase oil prices.
In July, “Joe Biden”, the president of the United States, made a trip to this kingdom with the aim of attracting the opinion of Saudi Arabia. Carrying out this trip was also accompanied by negative reactions due to Saudi Arabia’s negative human rights record.
According to the Hill website, Chris Murphy said in his interview on Sunday: “I have no problem with American presidents visiting our friends or rivals. I think it’s clear that our relationship is strained now. But these relations have also been broken during the periods of the Democratic and Republican presidents.
OPEC+ announced an increase in oil production after Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, but this increase was less than what the White House had expected.
The production reduction plan announced by this oil cartel caused some American lawmakers, including Murphy, to demand that the United States reconsider its alliance with Saudi Arabia, which normally buys weapons from the United States and hosts American soldiers.
“We sell a huge amount of weapons to the Saudis,” Murphy told CNN. I think we should reconsider these arms sales to Saudi Arabia. I think we should remove the exemption that we have granted to this OPEC+ cartel regarding the US requirement to control prices. I think we should take a look at our real presence in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia.”
America has maintained its military partnership with the Saudis for years, despite the cooling of the relations between the two sides at times.
Members of the Saudi royal government faced criticism from Americans and human rights activists after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Riyadh, in 2018, which US intelligence officials believe was ordered by the Saudi crown prince.
