According to the newspaper, the unrivaled Russian oil prices for India and China, for example, have already pushed Iran and Venezuela to also grant generous discounts for their crude oil. According to oil analysts and traders, the two countries are trying to hold onto the few available outlets for their own sanctioned exports.
And although the two countries officially emphasize their close and good ties to Russia and Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, experts in the “New York Times” are skeptical. They assume that the oil price war will get the two countries into serious trouble and expect increasing tensions with Moscow. Meanwhile, Putin is going on the offensive and wants to save his alliances.
Kremlin boss travels to Tehran
On Tuesday, the Kremlin announced that Putin would travel to Iran next week and meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan alongside his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi. It is Putin’s second officially known trip abroad since Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February. Officially, the meeting of the three heads of state is supposed to be about improving the situation in the civil war country Syria. However, experts in the “New York Times” also expect that the oil trade will be discussed unofficially in a conversation with Raisi.
The Russian war in Ukraine has already cast its shadow over the talks. According to the Kremlin, Putin will not talk to Raisi about the possible acquisition of combat drones during his upcoming visit to Iran. “No,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday, according to the Interfax agency, in response to a question from journalists. When asked what the basic status of a possible delivery of unmanned aircraft was, Peskow replied: “We have no comments on this.”
“Collaboration on a technological level”
On Monday, the United States said it had evidence that Iran wanted to support Russia in fighting Ukraine. According to this information, the Iranian government is preparing to provide several hundred drones – including those that can transport weapons. Iran rejected the US account. There is cooperation between Russia and Iran on a technological level, according to Tehran. But this began long before the Ukraine war.
Officially, Iran is neutral with regard to Putin’s war against Ukraine, which began at the end of February. But the sympathies of the Iranian leadership for Russia are well known. Iran’s relations with the largest country in the world in terms of area have become ever closer in recent years – especially since 2018, when the USA, under its then President Donald Trump, withdrew from the Vienna nuclear agreement. Due to US sanctions, Iran was also able to obtain military equipment almost exclusively from Russia.
US talks oil deal with Venezuela
In terms of Venezuela, however, no high-level Russian visit is officially planned. According to the New York Times, however, competition in the oil market seems to have brought Venezuela a little closer to the West. According to the newspaper, Chevron, the last remaining US oil producer in the country, is in talks with the Venezuelan government. The “New York Times” refers to Venezuelan oil managers and local officials in its statements.
Any possible deal with the Caracas government to bring more crude oil to the world market would help the US reduce ever-rising world oil prices and lessen the economic damage to western economies from the Ukraine war, the US said newspaper further. “The war shows that countries have interests, not enemies or friends,” Francisco Monaldi, a Venezuelan oil policy expert at Rice University, concluded in the New York Times.
Biden wants to urge Saudis to produce more oil
In addition to Putin, US President Joe Biden is also on his Middle East trip on oil diplomacy. Biden wants to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, on Saturday. One topic of his talks in Saudi Arabia will be the high oil prices as a result of the Ukraine war. Biden wants to get Saudi Arabia to export more oil to curb oil prices and dampen US inflation. The meeting was heavily criticized in advance.
As a presidential candidate, Biden said the 2018 assassination of Saudi Arabian journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi made Saudi Arabia a “pariah.” According to US intelligence, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination.