The American authorities are preparing for the first official meeting in a long time between Joe Biden and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed Salman al Saud. The White House sent a special Middle East coordinator, Brett McGurk, to prepare for an official visit on July 15. Axios writes about it.
The publication notes that the White House deliberately does not advertise the meeting as bilateral negotiations, insisting that this is "only part of Biden's big visit to the Middle East." The president will begin his working trip in Israel, after which he will go to Jeddah for a summit with the leaders of the Arab countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Jordan and Iraq. It is expected that the parties will discuss including oil production, many of the countries are current members of the OPEC + agreement, some of which considered the possibility of excluding Russia from the agreement.
The US administration has repeatedly announced its intention to reduce Russia's oil revenues. In June, US officials explicitly stated that Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia was related to oil – in this way, the United States wanted to solve two problems at once: a sharp increase in fuel prices in the domestic market and a reduction in Moscow's oil revenues amid record oil prices.
As part of the trip to the summit, Biden will meet with the crown prince to "repair relations, discuss an increase in oil production and try to normalize relations between Riyadh and Tel Aviv." In February 2021, Biden called for Saudi Arabia to be made "rogue" over the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. American intelligence claimed that Muhammad Salman personally stood behind his death, since then relations between the countries have remained tense.
Preparations for a meeting between the two leaders have been going on for a long time: the first reports appeared in early March 2022, almost immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In June, details emerged about the US intention to try to convince the Arab states (then it was only the UAE and Saudi Arabia) to increase oil production. Riyadh is still taking a wait-and-see attitude due to close relations with Russia and is in no hurry to take sides.