Saudi Arabia’s announcement, for the first time, that it will not bear responsibility for any shortage in global energy supplies caused by the Houthi-Iranian terrorist attacks on its oil facilities, is considered a “milestone strike” since the first Saudi oil shipment in 1939.
It comes at a time of uncertainty in energy and gas supplies, as a result of the geopolitical and military tensions arising from the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as the Houthi-Iranian crimes targeting civilians and oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
It is a crime against the world because it is not only Saudi Arabia that is affected by the terrorist attacks, rather, all countries of the world, for whom energy supplies are the backbone of their lives and the engine of their economic activity.
Therefore, it was not surprising Bloomberg recently reported quoting well-informed American sources that the continuation of the American position toward Riyadh, during the era of Democratic President Joe Biden, hampered US foreign policy goals.
Bloomberg added that Biden's Democratic administration has actually begun to change its position on Saudi Arabia after Washington realized that the Kingdom is the largest economy in the Middle East, and that it is an effective and influential country with great political weight in the region and the world, which cannot be bypassed or skipped.
It must be emphasized that any damage to the Saudi oil industry as a result of the Houthi-Iranian terrorist attacks will not be limited to the Kingdom alone. Rather, it will affect the energy supply to all countries of the world. This requires the international community to take a clear, strict and deterrent view of the danger posed by Iran's policies.
Saudi Arabia is able to protect its soil and facilities and to develop partnerships outside the American square, and it has alliances in the East and West, and the whole world knows that Saudi Arabia has been alone since 2015 in protecting navigation in the Red Sea, thwarting one attack after another by the Houthi terrorist militia, which does nothing without Iranian directives.
In fact, Iran is taking over the whole scene, in terms of fueling its Houthi agent with ballistic missiles and drones, to intensify targeting cities and oil installations in Saudi Arabia. It is an absurdity that Saudi Arabia will not tolerate for long.
It has become very urgent and necessary for the international community to be active in finding a deterrent response to Iranian manipulation and blackmail, because Saudi oil’s exit from the scene due to the Iranian-Houthi attacks will never be compensated by Iran, nor by the OPEC + group, which is trying to face the geopolitical fluctuations that provoke world concern. The recent Saudi declaration put the world in front of its responsibilities in this regard.
Talks about Western concessions to Iran in order to facilitate the restoration of the nuclear agreement concluded with it should not blind the world to the great danger represented by the Iranian regime's policies to destabilize the region and its financing of militias in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.
The time has come for the world to realize the extent of its mistakes as a result of not adopting deterrent policies to curb Iran's malicious ambitions.
It is certain that Saudi Arabia is able to protect itself, and is able to employ its broad alliances and turn them into great strategic partnerships. But it will not bear the consequences of Iranian tampering and criminality on what will happen to other countries in terms of shortages in energy supplies, and the consequent return of inflation and the collapse of stock markets.
These are consequences for which the Kingdom will not bear responsibility, as long as the world remains silent about the crimes of Iran's mullahs and their agents.