JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia: “Unrealistic” policies regarding energy sources will only push up costs and lead to “unprecedented inflation”, Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Saturday.
Addressing a US-Arab summit in the Saudi capital, he said that unified efforts are needed to support the global economy.
“Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding main sources of energy will lead in coming years to unprecedented inflation and an increase in energy prices and rising unemployment and a worsening of serious social and security problems,” he said.
The de facto ruler of the world’s top oil exporter said that Covid-19 and the geopolitical situation necessitated more joint efforts to support the global economy and that environmental challenges required a “realistic and responsible” approach to make a gradual transition to sustainable energy sources.
The summit brought together US President Joe Biden and leaders from six Gulf Arab states and Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. Biden held bilateral talks with Saudi leaders on Friday in Jeddah.
Biden discussed energy security with leaders of Gulf oil producers and is hoping to see more action by Opec and its allies to increase output, no bilateral announcements were expected from the talks.
The United States is eager to see Saudi Arabia and its Opec partners pump more oil to help bring down the high cost of gasoline and ease the highest US inflation in four decades, which has become a huge political headache for the Democrat president as midterm elections approach.
In his remarks at the summit, Biden told Arab leaders that Washington would remain fully engaged in the Middle East and would not cede influence to other world powers.
“We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran,” he said during the gathering in Jeddah, on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia.
US ties to Gulf powers in particular have been roiled by multiple issues in recent years, notably Washington’s push for a deal to curb Iran’s suspect nuclear programme and its tepid response to attacks on Saudi oil facilities in 2019 claimed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels.
Biden also told the assembled Arab leaders that “the future will be won by countries that unleash the full potential of their populations … where citizens can question and criticise leaders without fear of reprisal”.
He said the United States would commit $1 billion in food aid to the Middle East and North Africa amid rising food insecurity induced by the war in Ukraine.
Gulf states flex muscle
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed a once unthinkable divergence between Washington and key Middle East allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the oil giants that are increasingly independent on the international stage.
The wealthy Gulf nations, which host US forces and have dependably backed Washington for decades, have notably refrained from supporting the Biden administration as it tries to choke Moscow’s lifelines, from energy to diplomacy.
Analysts say the new position reveals a turning point in Gulf relations with the US, long the region’s protector against neighbour Iran.
But Saturday brought some conciliatory gestures, with Biden inviting his Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, to visit the White House before the year is up.
White House officials have used the trip as a bid to promote integration between Israel and Arab nations.
Saudi Arabia has refused to join the US-brokered Abraham Accords which in 2020 created ties between Israel and two of the kingdom’s neighbours, the UAE and Bahrain.
But it is showing signs of greater openness towards Israel, and on Friday announced it was lifting overflight restrictions on aircraft travelling to and from Israel, a move Biden hailed as “historic”.