Saudi Arabia and the U.S: New Security Partnership

On October 28, the Minister of energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz had an official meeting with the U.S Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. They deliberated ways to enhance relations between the two oil production states. They also talked about the future of energy, climate, technology, oil investments. As well as ways to strengthen economic ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia. The two countries agreed on working together to protect the world’s oil supply from threats.

One of the main issues deliberated during the session was rising concerns in oil supply security in the Persian Gulf region and Saudi Arabia. Last month drones and missiles attacked the Saudi oil field.  As a result, a processing facility took close to 6 million BPD in the production capacity of the market, leading to a price spike and worry about supply.

The U.S and Saudi Arabia officials blamed Iran in the offense, even though it denied these accusations.  However, the Houthi rebels took responsibility for the attacks. The Houthi is a military rebellion opposing Shia Houthis against the Yemeni military. It began in Northern Yemen and, unfortunately, escalated into a civil war. The announcement led to regional tensions, fueling more concern about the security and safety of oil supply.

New Project and Priority: Protect the Oil

Thus, the new threat made the U.S and Saudi Arabia think about creating a new peaceful partnership, which would connect Saudi missile defense systems to the U.S. ones. Besides, as a part of the project, they would start researching anti-drone technologies.

However, the U.S. deployed an additional 2,000 troops, along with jet fighters and other military anti-missile systems.  Plenty of critics have accused Trump of having no clear foreign policy in the Middle East, except for one – protect the oil. As reports suggest, Saudi Arabia will be able to restore the oil capacity by the end of next month.