Saudi Arabia gets patriot systems from US: Reports
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Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on US lethal weapons to fight a war that has killed nearly a quarter of a million people.
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The interceptor of Patriot PAC-3 CRI shown on a launch test (Raytheon)
Citing senior US officials, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US has transferred a "significant number" of Patriot missile systems to Saudi Arabia over the last month.
It took several months for US President Joe Biden's administration to fulfill Saudi Arabia's urgent request, despite high demand for Patriot interceptors among Washington's allies, The Wall Street Journal added.
Furthermore, the newspaper quoted a US official as saying that those Patriot transfers are intended to assist Saudi Arabia in countering Yemeni Armed Forces and national committees not to mention drone and missile retaliatory attacks in Yemen.
Read More: US Arms in Saudi's Pool of Blood: The Yemeni Massacre
For the past seven years, Yemen has been enduring aggression by the Saudi-led coalition that targets civilians on a daily basis, destroys infrastructure and residential areas, and starves innocent Yemenis - all amid international silence and complicity.
The list of massacres committed by the Saudi-led coalition is so long and the exact number of massacres may never be known, but estimates range as high as 699 massacres from the period between 2015 to 2021.
All for oil
Despite Biden repeatedly chastising u during his presidential campaign, and the CIA believing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, he is now looking to restrengthen ties with Saudi Arabia in order to increase oil production amid the global oil crisis, which emerged after imposing sanctions on Russia.
The attempt to persuade MBS to increase Saudi production of oil has reportedly failed. Simultaneously, Riyadh's refusal to increase oil production came as a surprise to Biden, as US consumers are struggling with rising gas prices, which Biden blames solely on "Putin," according to the newspaper.
The Saudi Crown Prince reiterated his country's "willingness to maintain balance and stability in the oil market," implying that he is committed to the OPEC+ agreement for the time being.
Washington is pushing the producer coalition, known as OPEC+, to boost output faster than it has been doing since August, but just a few nations, notably de facto OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have the spare capacity.
In yet another slap in the face, Saudi Aramco has lately announced plans to build a massive oil refinery in collaboration with China, as it seeks to profit from skyrocketing crude prices. According to CNBC, Saudi Aramco's net profit in 2021 will have more than doubled to $110 billion.
It is worth mentioning that officials in West Asia and the US have said that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammad bin Zayed have declined US requests to speak to the US President in recent weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal.
It appears that the Saudi and Emirati officials have become more critical of US policy in the Gulf, according to the daily, and don't want to address US concerns amid rising oil prices.
The last call Biden had with an official from these two countries was with Saudi Arabia's King Salman on February 9. Amid all of the developments that have taken place over the past months, both in West Asia and globally, the Saudis have signaled that their relationship with the US has deteriorated under the Biden administration.
