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Jared Kushner and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are set to give speeches at a Saudi investment conference, despite White House tensions with the country.
The two men will be speaking on panels at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on October 25 and 26.
Kushner will be sitting down with former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to discuss ‘peace and prosperity,’ while Mnuchin will be discussing global macro-finances with several others from Saudi, Bahrain, and India.
Mnuchin has been to the conference before, including as former President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary.
No one in Biden’s administration is attending the event.
The pair are attending the conference, despite the growing tensions between the US and Saudi after Biden announced he would be reevaluating the countries’ relationship following the OPEC oil production cut.
Jared Kushner (pictured) and former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are set to give speeches at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh on October 25 and 26
Mnuchin (pictured) has been to the conference before as Trump’s Treasury Secretary. No Biden officials will be attending
Cutting oil production in the Middle East by 2million barrels a day is sure to push gas prices even higher before the midterm elections, and has led to claims Saudi Arabia is ‘aligned’ with Russia.
For months, since the US cut off exports of Russian oil and the European Union moved toward divestment, Moscow has instead been selling its product to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis keep Russian oil for their own use and then sell theirs on the world market.
The Democrats have now vowed to get tough on the kingdom for the production cut, after Biden fist-bumped Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman in Jeddah in July.
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin also accused Saudi Arabia of wanting Russia to win the war in Ukraine.
‘Do you think Saudi Arabia wants Russia to win in Ukraine?’ CNN’s John Berman asked him.
Kushner will be sitting down with former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to discuss ‘peace and prosperity,’ while Mnuchin will be discussing global macro-finances with several others from Saudi, Bahrain, and India
‘Yes…let’s be very candid about this. It’s Putin and Saudi Arabia against the United States,’ he said earlier this month.
Kirby reiterated his remarks in a press briefing later on.
‘The president believes that we should review the bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia and to take take a look to see if that relationship is where it needs to be and that it is serving our national security interests and he is willing to discuss this relationship with members of Congress,’ he said.
Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has veto power over foreign arms sales, said in a statement that he ‘will not green light any cooperation with Riyadh until the Kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine.’
Earlier this month, Durbin, the Senate’s number two Democrat, wrote in a tweet Saudi Arabia has ‘never been a trustworthy ally’ and that it’s time for the US to ‘imagine a world without their alliance.’
Energy ministers from the OPEC cartel, whose leading member is Saudi Arabia, and allied non-members including Russia met in person at the group’s Vienna headquarters last week for the first time since early 2020.
They announced production cutbacks in early October and it is the largest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just this summer, Biden made a trip to the Middle East and met with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to discuss energy security and soaring gas prices in the US to avoid a problematic handshake with the leader Biden fist bumped bin Salman.
Biden announced earlier this month that he will reevaluate the US’ relationship with Saudi after the oil-rich country cut production by 2million barrels a day
The announcement boosted Russian oil prices to bankroll the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. It also thwarts the West’s efforts to choke off Moscow’s energy dollars.
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a veiled swipe at Biden as he said the U.S. should pump more oil and gas and should have been doing so for a long time.
‘In my view, America should have been pumping more oil and gas and it should have been supported,’ the famed billionaire chairman told CNBC on Monday.
‘America needs to play a real leadership role. America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia. We should have gotten that right starting in March,’ he added.
Biden is also considering telling American businesses to stop expanding their ties with Saudi, according to NBC News.
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