Saudi prince issues warning to Biden administration over Biden's threats to Saudi Arabia

AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File

A Saudi prince related to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman broadcast a warning to President Joe Biden and the United States, telling the Democrat president to stop threatening Saudi Arabia.

“Anybody that challenges the existence of this country and this kingdom. All of us, we are products of jihad, and martyrdom,” said Saudi Prince Saud al-Shaalan in a video published on Twitter. The prince is a member of the House of Saud and is married to one of the late King Abdulaziz Al Saud’s granddaughters. 

"That's my message to anybody that thinks that it can threaten us," he said.

Because I know they will delete it
Here it is again: pic.twitter.com/L4awAOcRRk

— د. عبدالله العودة (@aalodah) October 15, 2022

The Saudi prince’s warning to the U.S. president comes following Biden’s threats to “take action” against the Gulf kingdom following its decision – along with other OPEC+ members – to cut the production of oil by up to 2 million barrels a day despite Biden’s demands that they increase output.

Following the OPEC+ decision, Biden lashed out at his counterparts in Saudi Arabia and accused the kingdom of taking sides with Russia in the West’s ongoing economic war against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Biden warned of “consequences” for Saudi Arabia if it did not fall in line with his demands.

“There's going to be some consequences for what they've done with Russia,” Biden said in an interview with CNN last week.

Saudi Arabia issued an official response to Biden in a scathing public letter, stating that abiding by Biden’s demands would have resulted in “negative economic consequences.” The statement proved embarrassing for the Biden administration. 

“The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would first like to express its total rejection of these statements that are not based on facts, and which are based on portraying the OPEC+ decision out of its purely economic context,” the Saudi foreign ministry said.

Had OPEC+ acquiesced to Biden’s demands, member states would have been forced to increase their output of oil, which would have reduced the global price of oil and severely damaged their own economies in order to prop up the Biden administration and the Democrats in the upcoming midterms.