A report that Saudi and Emirati leaders declined U.S. requests to speak with President Joe Biden as he attempted to build international support to counter Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and contain oil prices is false, the White House said on Thursday.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Middle East and U.S. officials said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan both refused calls with Biden in recent weeks amid diplomatic challenges with Washington.
Biden’s press secretary said the claim wasn’t true.
HARRIS FACES BIGGEST DIPLOMATIC TEST AS LOCALS WORRY ‘PUTIN SMELLS BIDEN’S FEAR’
“There were no rebuffed calls. Period,” Jen Psaki said.
She pointed to Biden’s phone call with Prince Mohammed’s 86-year-old father, King Salman, on Feb. 9, and suggested that Prince Mohammed could seek out Biden at international forums if he wanted to speak to him.
“If the crown prince had been at any of the global events that the president recently attended, I’m sure he would have engaged with him, but he was not,” Psaki said.
Prince Mohammed has bristled at Biden’s call for accountability following the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and is also facing multiple lawsuits in the U.S.
The White House has worked to foster closer ties with the two Middle East countries as oil prices surge to record heights. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are both major producers that could pump more barrels and ease market pressures as American gasoline prices rise.
Two senior Biden administration officials traveled to Riyadh last month to press the administration’s case.
Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s Middle East coordinator, and Amos Hochstein, the State Department’s energy envoy, met with Saudi officials. McGurk also met with Sheikh Mohammed in Abu Dhabi over U.S. policy in Yemen in response to Houthi attacks.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Both countries have declined to pump more oil, saying that they are sticking to a plan approved by OPEC.
Prince Mohammed and Sheikh Mohammed each talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and with Ukraine’s president after declining to speak with Biden, according to the report.
