by Kyle Becker | Becker News
President Joe Biden is looking increasingly isolated as he pursues an aggressive foreign policy position against Russia in light of its invasion of Ukraine.
The Biden administration appears to be caught unprepared to make up energy shortfalls after it announced that it would ban Russian oil and gas imports and suspend all trade relations with the country. Russia’s exports to the U.S. increased from three percent to seven percent of America’s portfolio under the Biden administration.
The U.S. is calling on petrodictatorships around the world, such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, to help replace the lost energy imports. The Biden administration is also taking flak for refusing to open up domestic energy sources, such as by increasing federal leases for oil and gas production, loosening restrictions on offshore oil drilling, supporting fracking, and greenlighting the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada into the United States.
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), who is chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, argued that the U.S. should ‘not be trading in one tyrant for another to meet America’s energy needs.’
“We need to blow a hole in the Russian economy. We need to lower gas prices for American consumers. Everything should be on the table,” he said in an interview. “But I don’t support strengthening one dictator to hurt another. And I don’t think you’ll see us do that.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NY) lashed out at the Biden administration for turning to Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
“Nicolás Maduro is a cancer to our hemisphere and we should not breathe new life into his reign of torture and murder,” Menendez said in a statement. “As such, I would strongly oppose any action that fills the pockets of regime oligarchs with oil profits while Maduro continues to deprive Venezuelans of basic human rights, freedoms, and even food.”
Biden officials recently traveled to Venezuela to explore the prospect of lifting sanctions, including renewing energy imports to offset the banned Russian oil.
Meanwhile, Biden has turned to authoritarian Middle Eastern regimes to assist with global oil supplies, but has thus far been rebuked.
The Saudi crown prince and the United Arab Emerates sheikh have both rejected President Biden’s overtures to aid the United States on lowering world oil and gas prices.
“The White House unsuccessfully tried to arrange calls between President Biden and the de facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the U.S. was working to build international support for Ukraine and contain a surge in oil prices,” Middle East and U.S. officials said, as reported in the Wall Street Journal.
“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the U.A.E.’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan both declined U.S. requests to speak to Mr. Biden in recent weeks, the officials said, as Saudi and Emirati officials have become more vocal in recent weeks in their criticism of American policy in the Gulf,” WSJ noted.
“There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,“ said a U.S. official about Biden’s planned call to the Saudis. ”It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”
Biden spoke with Prince Mohammed’s 86-year-old father, King Salman on Feb. 9, the report said. The U.A.E. said a call between Biden and Sheikh Mohammed would be ‘rescheduled.’
“The Saudis have signaled that their relationship with Washington has deteriorated under the Biden administration, and they want more support for their intervention in Yemen’s civil war, help with their own civilian nuclear program as Iran’s moves ahead, and legal immunity for Prince Mohammed in the U.S.,” WSJ reported, citing Saudi officials.
Even Ilhan Omar criticized the Biden administration for turning to regimes such as the Saudis to assist with lowering global oil prices.
“Our response to Putin’s immoral war shouldn’t be to strengthen our relationship with the Saudis who are currently causing the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet in Yemen,” Ms. Omar said. “Yemenis might not matter to some geopolitically but their humanity should. This is [a] wildly immoral act.”
On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Saudi crown prince and the United Arab Emerates sheikh rejected President Biden’s overtures to aid the United States on lowering world oil and gas prices.
“The White House unsuccessfully tried to arrange calls between President Biden and the de facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the U.S. was working to build international support for Ukraine and contain a surge in oil prices,” Middle East and U.S. officials said, WSJ reported.
“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the U.A.E.’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan both declined U.S. requests to speak to Mr. Biden in recent weeks, the officials said, as Saudi and Emirati officials have become more vocal in recent weeks in their criticism of American policy in the Gulf,” WSJ noted.
“There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,“ said a U.S. official about Biden’s planned call to the Saudis. ”It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”
Biden spoke with Prince Mohammed’s 86-year-old father, King Salman on Feb. 9, the report said. The U.A.E. said a call between Biden and Sheikh Mohammed would be ‘rescheduled.’
“The Saudis have signaled that their relationship with Washington has deteriorated under the Biden administration, and they want more support for their intervention in Yemen’s civil war, help with their own civilian nuclear program as Iran’s moves ahead, and legal immunity for Prince Mohammed in the U.S.,” WSJ reported, citing Saudi officials.
While Biden boasted prior to the 2020 election that he would restore dignity and respect to the White House, this has not led to an improvement in foreign relations with nations such as Russia, China or Middle Eastern nations.
Biden came into office with the promise that he would restore America’s standing in the world. Instead, he has single-handedly squandered America’s energy independence, its ability to rein in regional aggressors like Russia, and has unraveled the gains in Russian, Chinese and Middle Eastern diplomacy that were achieved under President Trump.
Author: Kyle Becker