US President George W. Bush arrived
on 16th May in Saudi Arabia, in order to discuss two major issues
with the king Abdullah: the increase of oil output towards the United States and
the growing power of Iran.
Regarding the first issue, it is
a general truth that Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest supplier of oil and
also the biggest petrol provider for the United States. The US president’s
goal is to convince the king to increase the oil production by one million
barrels per day, in order to ease high prices at the pump. Moreover, this
situation is constrained by the resolution aimed to block 1.4 billion dollars
in arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
The second important issue on Mr.
Bush’s agenda was the increasing power of Iran in the Middle-East region, as
Iran is exploiting the Palestinian issue “to spread its influence,” the political
analyst Khalid al-Dakhil thinks, according to Agence France-Presse. The Middle
East peace process is to be “discussed in depth” during this visit, as Prince
Saud al-Faisal, Saudi Foreign Minister, announced.
Finally, other issues that are to
be discussed by the two country-leaders regard nuclear energy, infrastructure
protection and non-proliferation, on which cooperation agreements are expected
to be signed.
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