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  Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed declined requests for direct communication with President Biden in recent weeks.

• The Biden Administration was silently hoping that Saudi Arabia and the UAE would increase crude production in the short term.
• A Wall Street Journal report notes that Riyadh considers U.S.-Saudi relations to have worsened since President Biden came into office.

According to the sources, both Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed declined requests for direct communication with President Biden in recent weeks, the report said.

“There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,” a Washington official told the Wall Street Journal about Crown Prince Mohammed. “It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”

The U.S. has been looking to Saudi Arabia and its closest regional ally, the UAE, to boost oil production in order to bring down oil prices, but neither has been particularly forthcoming. By extension, OPEC has also demonstrated its reluctance to boost production by more than originally agreed.

The Wall Street Journal report notes that Riyadh considers U.S.-Saudi relations to have worsened since President Biden came into office, with Saudi Arabia wanting bigger commitments to bilateral friendship from Washington.

The Biden administration has condemned the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and has actively distanced itself from the Yemen conflict, in which Saudi Arabia and the UAE are fighting Iran-backed Yemeni rebels.

In a recent interview for The Atlantic, the Saudi Crown Prince signaled that he expected Washington to do more to strengthen bilateral relations and suggested that the White House’s behavior towards Riyadh could harm Biden himself.

“Where is the potential in the world today?” the Crown Prince also told The Atlantic. “It’s in Saudi Arabia. And if you want to miss it, I believe other people in the East are going to be super happy.”

Washington has sought to mend fences with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but it seems this would take longer than expected, Oilprice.com reports.

The Conservative Tree House writes: Remember when Joe Biden tried to claim, because of his election, the U.S. was respected again?  Yeah, well, not so much.

Apparently, the Biden administration planned to go hat in hand to the Middle East for help with oil production.  However, Saudi Arabia and the UAE refused to even take Joe Biden’s calls.

(Wall Street Journal) […] Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the U.A.E.’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan both declined U.S. requests to speak to Mr. Biden in recent weeks, the officials said, as Saudi and Emirati officials have become more vocal in recent weeks in their criticism of American policy in the Gulf.

“There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,” said a U.S. official of the planned discussion between the Saudi Prince Mohammed and Mr. Biden. “It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”

[…] One U.S. official said the Biden administration has worked diligently to strengthen Saudi and Emirati missile defenses, and that America would be doing more in the coming months to help the two Gulf nations protect themselves. It may not be all the two countries want, the official said, but the U.S. is trying to address their security concerns.

But the Saudis and Emiratis have declined to pump more oil, saying they are sticking to a production plan approved between their group, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and a group of other producers led by Russia. The energy alliance with Russia, one of the world’s top oil producers, has enhanced OPEC’s power while also bringing the Saudis and Emiratis closer to Moscow.

Both Prince Mohammed and Sheikh Mohammed took phone calls from Russian President Vladimir Putin last week, after declining to speak with Mr. Biden. (read more)

MBS and Sheikh Mohammed are not blind.  They know the Obama-Biden teams support the Muslim Brotherhood who are the political wing of the Islamic extremist figures creating unrest in the Middle East, The Conservative Tree House concludes.