Saudi prince, rebuked by West, faces dilemma over Russia and China | Reuters
The United States and Britain are ramping up pressure on Saudi Arabia to pump more oil and join efforts to isolate Russia, while Riyadh has shown little readiness to respond and has revived a threat to ditch dollars in its oil sales to China.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson flew into the world's biggest crude oil exporter on Wednesday, a day after U.S. security advisor Brett McGurk arrived with a U.S. delegation.
Saudi Arabia and its neighbour the United Arab Emirates, which are among just a handful of producers with spare capacity, have snubbed Western calls for more crude to cool red-hot prices and have stuck to an OPEC+ supply pact with Russia and others.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, has faced sharp Western criticism over the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Riyadh's human rights record and the Yemen war. U.S. President Joe Biden has, so far, refused to deal directly with the prince, who is widely known as MbS.
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