 As the war in Ukraine continues, a lot of global focus is on energy and specifically oil and natural gas supplies. Russia exports between 4 and 5 billion barrels of crude a day and 8500 billion cubic feet of natural gas annually. The US has already banned energy imports from Russia and there is pressure on the European countries to take similar measures. Crude prices are soaring to record levels. In this context, all eyes are on the countries in West Asia, which are some of the most important suppliers of oil. What position have some of these countries taken in relation to the war and the politics of energy? Rania Khalik of Breakthrough News explains. It's quite interesting because in the Middle East, which is a place where the US is very powerful and has many client states, the US has so far not managed to get its allies in the region to side with it on this conflict. Particularly its most close allies, which in this case United Arab Emirates, the Saudis, the Israelis, and all three of these cases, and for both local and geopolitical reasons, these countries have refrained from condemning Russia, aside from one comment from the Israeli foreign minister, when the near when the conflict first began condemning the Russian invasion. Aside from that, the Israelis have been very reluctant. They've even tried to play a mediating role in this conflict. One of the reasons for that is because Israel does have a large Russian population and is also close with Russia. Of course, it's closer to the US, but it speaks to what a power Russia is in the Middle East, that these countries that are completely dependent client states on the US are still hesitant to publicly take a side because they don't want to upset the Russians. The same goes for the UAE and the Saudis. There's a little bit more also playing into that than just Russia being a major player in the Middle East. There's also local dynamics, which I'll talk about shortly. That said, the UAE, the US has had several conversations with the UAE foreign minister trying to get them, the country, to side with the United States. But there was the UN vote on whether to condemn Russia or not, and the UAE, in fact, abstained. The Saudis have really stayed away from making any real firm statements on this issue as well, despite the fact that they're completely dependent on USAID, and that's really frustrated the Americans. A few days after the war began, the OPEC plus countries, including Russia, had a short meeting in which they decided to continue restoring production levels, which had decreased due to the pandemic. The meeting was seen as significant as no decision was taken to increase supplies beyond the agreement, even though demand is high due to the current crisis. How do we understand this decision of the OPEC plus countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates? So as we know, the US has banned Russian energy imports, and as a result, the price of oil has already skyrocketed since the conflict began, and the sanctions on Russia came into play, and of course, now it's only going up higher. And Russia provides something like around 5% of US energy needs. So to replace that, just for the US, of course, is looking to its allies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which, as you mentioned, are major players in OPEC. But as we've seen, neither country has taken a side in this conflict. And there's a few reasons for this that I think people need to understand that is connected to why the Saudis and the UAE are refusing to really increase their production as the US has been asking for. First, it speaks to, like I mentioned, the power of Russia and the growing weakness of the US in the Middle East, and I think around the world. And it's also not the first time the Saudis have refused the US demand about oil. Last year, Biden asked the Saudis to increase oil production due to the supply shortage from when production went down during COVID, and the Saudis said no. So the fact that in this moment, you see, again, US client states, like the Saudis and Emiratis, refusing to not only condemn Russia, but refusing to up the oil production speaks to the Russian power dynamics at play. Russia has a strong relationship with these countries in the Middle East. And so far, they don't see much of a benefit to ruining that relationship by taking the American side only. But that said, we see also the US is approaching the Venezuelans for potential oil purchases to replace the Russian imports. This, of course, is after years of destroying Venezuela and its oil industry through sanctions. And there's a potential for going to Iran for oil, which we can get to. But of course, it's not the US that needs to contend with this. It's not just the US, it's also Europe, which is going to hurt even more given with the rise of oil prices and potential bands on Russian oil imports, because they're so much more dependent on Russian energy than the US is. And they don't have anything that they can even think about replacing it with in the near term, let alone the infrastructure in place. But another reason for the Saudis and the Emiratis refusing, at least for now, the US request to even actually speak with them about this is the country specific dynamics at play. I mean, Anthony Blinken did speak to Muhammad bin Zayed of the Emirates, and eventually he will speak to MBS, even though so far MBS is refusing his call. So really what's happening here is just a game of hard to get. It's not like the GCC can really be independent. They still belong to the US in many ways. But this also has to do with MBS wanting Biden to recognize him as the Crown Prince, which the US has so far refused to do. So in a way, it's kind of like a temper tantrum. But countries in the Middle East, they're going to play on these little contradictions. They're going to balance a little bit between Russia and America when they can. But like I said, the Saudis still belong to America, but they've been angry at the Americans since the days of Obama. That's when it really began. And then under Trump, even when they were hit by Houthi drones, they felt that the US wasn't doing enough to really prevent them from being attacked by the Houthis. That's how they see it. And they, I think, started to realize that even before the Ukrainians that the US often abandons its allies, that's how the Saudis and a lot of these US clients are seeing it, especially after what took place in Afghanistan, which is why the Saudis have been having talks with the Iranians, which haven't received much attention. And these talks appear to be going very well and will hopefully help in some way in resolving the crisis in Yemen. And the Saudis are also resentful of the US because they think the US doesn't mind the conflict in Yemen continuing and isn't helping them enough. So it's kind of like the opposite point of view of what we would have, where we see the US as being complicit in the war in Yemen and the reason it's possible. The Saudis see it as the US isn't helping us enough to stop the Houthi attacks on us. So there's this general resentment in the Gulf that the US is like an unreliable partner. And what we see happening now is that they're going to take advantage of the contradictions in the space they have to play these great powers against each other. And finally, the energy crisis has also brought into focus the Iran nuclear deal. Reports say the US is pushing for the quick conclusion of the deal so that oil supplies from Iran can resume. How are the Iranians responding to the situation, especially in light of their demands for guarantees for the resumption of the deal? The Iranians have been burnt so much by the US that I think they're of course going to look at this deal and make sure they can get the guarantees they need. But at the same time, I think they'll be open to selling their oil if that's what this is about, which a very well may be why we're hearing that this deal is going to happen more quickly than we thought, right? Because like we saw with also the Venezuelans, the US is desperate to find any oil producer that can offset the skyrocketing price of oil because of the sanctions on Russia. And now the the ban they've implemented against Russian oil. And as far as the Iranians are concerned, of course, they they they abstained at the UN as well. They're not supporting Russia's invasion. They're saying they understand that this was a result of NATO provocations. But they're being very careful to balance because a lot of these countries don't want to come out supporting what they see as like, I mean, not what they see it is, it's an invasion, it's an aggressive war against another country, even if Russia was provoked. And it's, you know, something that they've been trying to prevent from happening to themselves at the hands of, you know, imperialists, Western imperialists. So a lot of these countries, while, of course, they're recognizing the NATO role in provoking this, the US role in provoking this, imperialism's role in provoking this, they're being very careful and not exactly, you know, cheering on the Russians. And as far as Iran is concerned, just like Venezuela, they will sell their oil to whoever will buy it. So if the US is going to start trying to make Iranian oil so that's purchasable, that'll be good for the Iranian economy. And I think the Iranians are well on their right to sell that oil where they can, as you know, they need the revenue. For more videos on people's struggles, please subscribe to our YouTube channel.