Analysis: High oil prices, Ukraine war at Saudi pivot point | AP News
A spike in global energy prices benefits Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil exporter, but problems remain for the kingdom’s impulsive crown prince.
Whether trying to find jobs for a growing number of unemployed youth or finding a way to end the long war he launched in Yemen, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman now face a potential pivot point for the kingdom amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Can the ruling Al Saud family reset a now-troubled relationship with the United States, long the security guarantor for the wider Persian Gulf, as tensions simmer with Iran and higher fuel prices squeeze Washington? Or does the kingdom tip toward further toward China, now its biggest buyer of crude, or Moscow?
An American rapprochement seems unlikely. Asked in a recent interview about what he’d want President Joe Biden to know about, Prince Mohammed bluntly said: “I don’t care.”
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