No, the United States Should Not Kowtow to Saudi Arabia to Stick It to Russia

Justin LoganThe war in Ukraine grinds on, and Western observers seem to be growing frustrated with Russia ’s ability to sustain the war. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen has recently arrived at a ceasefire, although there are plenty of reasons to worry that it will revert to form. Some authors have begun to weigh tradeoffs in U.S. efforts in both theaters.Fareed Zakariawrites that in order to impose more stringent energy sanctions against Russia, Washington needs to go hat in hand to Saudi Arabia and cut a deal for it to pump more oil:The only plausible path to keep the pressure on Russia while not crippling the global economy is to get oil prices down. And the only sustainable way to do this is to get the world ’s largest “swing producer,” Saudi Arabia, as well as other gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, to increase production of oil.The thinking here has a number of moving pieces. The United States should offer Saudi Arabia “more solid security guarantees” to the House of Saud in exchange for the Saudis 1)promising to pump more oil, so that2) we can sanction Russian oil, in order to3) increase the suffering in Russia, in an effort to4) decrease Russia ’s leverage at the negotiating table.Zakaria hints, but does not expressly write, that this also means letting MBS off the hook for killing U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, for running one of the world ’s most repressive, dictatorial regimes, and for prosecutin...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs