Oil has become a political weapon once again following revelations of human rights violations by Saudi Arabia, prompting a global outcry against the Saudi regime, including threatening Tweets from US President Donald Trump, prompting lashback from Saudi Arabia.
President Trump threatened “powerful action” against Saudi Arabia over the weekend in response to the alleged slaying of a journalist within the walls of the Saudi embassy in Turkey; the missing journalist was an outspoken critic of the Saudi regime, and his disappearance at the hands of the Arab consulate has seen the global attitude towards Saudi Arabia shift dramatically over the weekend.
In response to the US’ threatened measures, Saudi Arabia is retorting with threatening measures of their own, highlighting a list of 30 potential counter-moves if the US strikes out against them.
Saudi Arabia is threatening to hit the US economy with targeted countermeasures that would impact the domestic US economy ‘much harder’ than the Saudi’s, including curtailing investment in US resources as well as putting a halt to purchasing weapons systems from the US, a move that would drastically impact weapon manufacturers who have well-embedded ties to the US government.
Saudi Arabia is also reversing their cooling rhetoric on oil prices, warning that the Saudi government will not be hitting its oil production quotas, and will no longer rule out barrels hitting $100 or even higher, in a direct threat to President Trump’s current stance on oil prices, who has frequently demanded that OPEC nations including Saudi Arabia do more to suppress currently-rising oil costs across the globe.
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