New Saudi King to Obama: Lower-price Oil Policy won’t Change

[marmar]

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) –

President Obama cut short his India trip to head off to Riyadh in the wake of the death last Thursday of King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia. Some 30 members of the Washington elite came along, of both parties, including Sen. John McCain and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. This love fest underlined the close relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States, which are nearly as important for US Middle East policy as Washington’s special relationship to Israel.

Saudi Arabia gets special treatment from the US, with its arbitrary, absolute monarchy and extensive human rights abuses never being openly condemned by the US government. Iran, which for all the extensive faults of its theocratic government, is substantially freer than Saudi Arabia, is constantly hectored about its authoritarianism and attempt to export a radical form of Islam. But Saudi Arabia is held harmless in D.C. simply by never being brought up in this context. When asked by Fareed Zakaria about this issue of Saudi human rights, Obama took refuge in the close security cooperation between the two countries. He also maintained that the US does pressure Riyadh behind the scenes. But the US routinely complains about invidious policies pursued by European allies out in the open. That Saudi Arabia is treated with kid gloves only has one explanation: It pumps over 10 percent of the petroleum produced daily in the world.

One issue they discussed was the plummeting of oil prices, which is badly hurting North Dakota, where expensive hydraulically fractured petroleum may not be viable at $50 a barrel or less. US oil companies sent stock prices down in the US today by declining to buy new equipment from companies like Caterpillar, which took a hit. Saudi Arabia could put at least some upward pressure on prices by simply pumping a bit less petroleum daily. ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/obama-policy-change.html

[JonLP24]

1. Wyoming's economy is the most dependent on oil & gas in the union

Layoffs begin, rig count falls amid low oil price projections
http://trib.com/business/energy/layoffs-begin-rig-count-falls-amid-low-oil-price-projections/article_d6108ac2-bdbe-5877-b915-bdfa6183bf5f.html

However, a lot of that doesn't interest me. I'm very curious to the words used -- Obama and Salman also talked about the collapse of Yemen, about Daesh (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria, and about US talks with Iran over its nuclear energy program.

I'm sure Saudi Arabia doesn't want Yemen in control of Houthis, they also don't want oil sanctions lifted off Iran. I can easily guess that part of it, what I'm wondering is what Obama said and how he feels & what kind, if any, compromises were struck. ISIS is a lot trickier, I'm sure there was a lot of pretending from Saudi Arabia & a lot of pretending from the US. As well as a lot of pretending that the other side isn't pretending.