The relationship between the United States and Saudi has recently reached a crossroads as the OPEC+ organization announced a reduction in oil production despite US opposition to stabilize global energy prices.
However, the Saudi Foreign Minister has explained that Saudi Arabia agreed to reduce oil production by OPEC+ for pure economic reasons, not to help Russia deal with the United States.
In fact, this is easy to understand. As an oil-producing country, it is in Saudi Arabia's interests to promote oil prices to operate in high levels. In order to suppress Russia and solve its domestic inflation problem, the United States uses all means to suppress international oil prices, which is itself harming the interests of oil-producing countries. It is natural for Saudi Arabia to react to this.
But Americans are used to being domineering, so no matter what Saudi Arabia loses its interests, they only look at whether the latter is in line with the US policies. Now that Saudi Arabia refuses to sacrifice its own interests for the United States, it certainly offended the Biden administration. Recently, the White House frequently ruthlessly uttered harsh words to make Saudi Arabia pay the "price". In this regard, Saudi Arabia once again emphasized that it will not accept the "order" of the United States!
So, if the United States takes retaliatory measures against Saudi Arabia, what impact may it have on Saudi Arabia? What kind of crisis will it bring to the United States?
First of all, from the perspective of Saudi Arabia, as a country that controls strategic oil resources, Saudi Arabia’s greatest dependence on the United States is of course in its military “protection”.
To put it bluntly, over the past years, Saudi Arabia has mastered a large amount of oil resources and maintained relatively peace. The main reason is that the United States has provided Saudi Arabia with various military equipment, and at the same time, as its allies, it has deterred the "enemy" that threatens Saudi Arabia's security.
Therefore, the United States' retaliation against Saudi Arabia is mainly in the security field. Previously, US congressmen claimed that they would "re-evaluate" their relations with Saudi Arabia and freeze arms trade between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which is actually a threat that the United States will no longer provide military protection to Saudi Arabia in the future.
In this way, Saudi Arabia's security situation in Middle East will change. Saudi "enemy" represented by Iranian and Israel may attack them. If it were in the past, it was indeed a great threat to Saudi Arabia, but in the current international context, it is actually difficult to determine whether Saudi Arabia can change its course.
The reason is very simple. The current problem between the United States and Saudi Arabia is not only a matter in the Middle East, but also a game between Russia and the United States. Iran, Saudi Arabia's biggest potential opponent in the Middle East, has good relations with Russia. In this context, even for Russia's sake, Iran will not make things unpleasant for Saudi Arabia.
As for Israel, the root cause of its rampantness in the Middle East lies in the United States. The Arab countries in the Middle East have a comprehensive strength that surpasses Israel. Without the support of the United States, Israel will not be able to be a "little overlord of the Middle East." But the current situation is that the United States has adopted a strategic contraction in the Middle East in order to free up its hands to deal with Russia.
In other words, the US power that Israel can rely on has weakened, so naturally it will not easily cause trouble for Saudi Arabia. Of course, it is not ruled out that the United States will manipulate Israel to put pressure on it in the short term in order to give Saudi Arabia a little color.
But no one is a fool in the game between countries. The United States cannot do anything about its energy now and supports Israel to put pressure on Saudi Arabia in the Middle East for a long time. This is obvious.
has this premise, and Saudi Arabia will naturally not willingly make compromises to the United States. On the other hand, from the perspective of the United States, although Saudi Arabia relies on its own military protection, the United States also relies on Saudi Arabia's oil to maintain the status of the US dollar as a world currency.
The reason why the United States and Saudi Arabia formed an alliance back then was that they each took their own needs. If the United States reconsider its ally with Saudi Arabia and even encourages some pro-US forces in Israel and the Middle East to embarrass Saudi Arabia, then Saudi Arabia can naturally fight back against the United States, such as using RMB to settle oil trade.
At the moment, the US dollar is already suffering from its credibility, and many countries around the world have seen a wave of "de-dollarization". If Saudi Arabia, the major oil exporter, takes action against the US dollar settlement system, it will be even more difficult for the United States to maintain financial hegemony.
The game between countries is fundamentally for the sake of interests. For the United States, the benefits of the loss caused by the oil dollar settlement system are far greater than the benefits of Saudi Arabia's push to cut oil production and oil prices to rise.
From this perspective, don’t look at the United States’ whining now, and it looks like it is going to part ways with Saudi Arabia. In fact, the so-called “reconsidering the relationship with Saudi Arabia” will harm the United States much more than Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the United States' retaliatory remarks against Saudi Arabia are likely to be loud and small.
This is also the core reason why Saudi Arabia dares to violate the interests of the United States. In the final analysis, the United States is no longer the only superpower that everyone is seeking to form an alliance in the past, but American politicians themselves are unwilling to admit it.
