A leak of Macron reveals Mohammed bin Zayed’s blow to Saudi Arabia before Biden’s visit
A press leak of a conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Joe Biden revealed the blow of UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed to Saudi Arabia.
In the leak, Macron exposes that Mohammed bin Zayed revealed Saudi Arabia’s political papers to the French president before the Jeddah summit in the middle of next month and Biden’s visit to the Kingdom.
Mohammed bin Zayed told Macron that Saudi Arabia “does not have additional oil production capabilities, and it needs six months to do so after it has reached its maximum oil production.”
Macron conveyed this to Biden, who is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia in the middle of next month.
According to observers, exposing Saudi Arabia’s political papers means a deliberate weakening of the Kingdom’s position by Mohammed bin Zayed before hosting Biden.
Fox News channel leaked the video clip in which Macron explains to Biden: “I pushed him (meaning Mohammed bin Zayed) to admit that he produces oil at the maximum.”
“He (Mohammed bin Zayed) told me that calling on the Saudis to increase oil production would only lead to an increase in Saudi production of only 150,000 barrels, and maybe more,” Macron added.
Macron also explained that Mohammed bin Zayed told him that the Saudis did not have to increase production capacity 6 months ago.
With the oil and gas crisis afflicting the United States and Europe after the Russian oil embargo, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are seen as the only two countries in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with spare capacity to boost global deliveries that could lower prices.
He promotes that the main reason US President Joe Biden travelled to Saudi Arabia after pledging to make it a pariah after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is to urge it, or perhaps to implement a Saudi condition to increase oil production.
Saudi Arabia currently produces 10.5 million barrels per day and has a nominal capacity of 12.0-12.5 million barrels per day, which should theoretically allow it to increase production by 2 million barrels.
The UAE produces about three million barrels per day, with a capacity of 3.4 million barrels per day, and is working to increase it to four million barrels per day.
Europe is looking for ways to replace up to 2 million barrels per day of Russian crude and about 2 million barrels per day of refined products it imported from Moscow before the invasion of Ukraine.
The energy file will be among the priorities of US President Biden during his Gulf tour in mid-July, when he is expected to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, on the sidelines of the summit of the leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in addition to Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.
