Joe Biden’s recent trip to the Middle East made many headlines, and none of them were particularly good. First, the president landed in Israel and insulted Holocaust survivors. He appeared aloof, out of touch, and physically frail at other times during the week. Then there was Biden’s stopover in Saudi Arabia, which led to a now-infamous fist bump that set teeth gnashing because the left hate the Saudis.
But the topline from the president’s tour was simple: It accomplished nothing. The White House tried to claim that there had been a production deal, but no proof was provided. After the Saudis stabbed Biden in the back as part of a major announcement by OPEC Plus, the reason was clear.
The OPEC+ 100,000 b/d increase in output compares with Washington’s expectations only a few days back that Saudi Arabia would head the cartel to raise production by 400,000-500,000 b/d. Since weeks US officials have stated that they expect positive actions at the Aug 3. OPEC+ meeting.| #OOTT 2/4
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) August 3, 2022
Saudi Arabia was one of the founders of OPEC. They have strong influence on the OPEC Plus and OPEC Plus countries. The entire point of Biden’s trip to the kingdom was to secure Saudi support for a large increase in production to help offset the global oil supply crunch that has driven up prices. The president received only 100,000 barrels of oil instead of the expected half-million. To put it in perspective, the United States burns about 21 million barrels of crude oil per day. This makes a 100,000-per-day global increase a mere rounding error.
However, the situation becomes more dim. Apparently, that “increase” doesn’t even amount to any real increase.
The Saudi kingdom has a quota of 11.006 million b/d for September. Let us put that in context. This is a total of 7.650 barrels per hour. Riyadh could produce extra oil in three minutes and half. It took a little longer than a fist bump greeting but it wasn’t too long.| #OOTT 4/4
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) August 3, 2022
This is the definition of total failure. The President of the United States went to the Middle East to beg a country he had previously tried to make a “pariah” for oil. Why? Because Biden’s own domestic energy policies have been so disastrous. After that, the president returned to Washington with no agreement and chose to talk more than act. Now, the results of that are in, and the Saudis aren’t even pretending to have played along. It’s yet another embarrassment for Biden and the nation.
This is the danger of having the world’s worst foreign policy “expert” in the White House. Biden is known for being wrong on all major geopolitical issues over the past half century. Now you have his plan to penalize the Saudis and elevate Iran to that list. It didn’t have to be this way. Trump left behind a improving Middle East, where the Arab nations as well as Israel moved toward historic peace. Biden just had to enjoy his ice cream and continue the status quo. Everyone was happy.
He just couldn’t do it, though. Instead, the President stuck his fingers in the eyes of Saudi Arabians and caused them to stop their long-standing cooperation. This harmed American consumers. What? Why pursue a pointless nuclear deal? Biden is this. He’s a man always in search of failure, and he can turn any good into bad.
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