Riyadh: We are surprised by the accusations against us about supporting Russia.
The Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia expressed his surprise at the accusations made against this country for supporting Russia.
“Khalid bin Salman”, the Minister of Defense of Saudi Arabia, on Sunday rejected the accusations against the country for supporting Russia.
He said: “We are surprised by the accusations made against Riyadh for supporting Russia in the war in Ukraine. These false accusations have not even been raised by the Ukrainian government.
The Saudi Defense Minister continued his speech and said: “OPEC+’s decision to reduce oil production was made purely for economic reasons, but some have accused Saudi Arabia of supporting Russia.” Iran was also a member of OPEC, does this mean that Saudi Arabia also stands by Iran?
It was last week that the OPEC+ organization announced that it will reduce its oil production. Following the announcement of this decision, US President Joe Biden said in an interview with CNN that this action will have consequences for the relations between Washington and Riyadh.
In response to these statements, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia issued a statement and announced that it rejects any statements about Riyadh taking sides in international conflicts after OPEC+’s decision to reduce oil production. These statements are not based on fact. The decision of OPEC+ was made by the consensus of all the member countries of this group, not by one country.
John Kirby, the spokesman of the National Security Council of the White House (Thursday, October 13), referring to the differences between the United States and OPEC+ over the reduction of oil production, said: “We do not agree with OPEC+’s statement that this decision was made only for economic purposes. In recent weeks, Saudi Arabia has publicly and privately conveyed this message to the United States that it intends to reduce its oil production. What we knew would increase Russia’s interest and reduce the impact of sanctions. This is the wrong path.”
