Is Biden finally finished with Mohammed bin Salman?

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister had some cheeky words for the Biden administration this week: don’t blame us for manipulating the oil markets, and start acting like grown-ups.

Standing on stage at the Saudi-organised Future Investment Initiative, known as ‘Davos in the Desert’, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman laid into American officials. Not only was Washington responsible for where oil prices are today, but they were also selfishly expecting Saudi Arabia to sacrifice its own economic interests for the sake of the West’s foreign policy. ‘We keep hearing you “are with us or against us”, is there any room for “we are with the people of Saudi Arabia?”’ the kingdom’s top oil man said.

This month’s decision by the oil cartel Opec+ to reduce crude output by two million barrels a day has roiled a relationship that was already deteriorating. For Washington, it was the latest evidence of the kingdom’s unreliability as a custodian of world oil supplies.