OPEC-plus decision humiliation for Washington

Despite the pressure the Joe Biden administration has tried to exert on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to pump more oil, the largest body of world major oil producers, as well as other non-OPEC partners, agreed on Wednesday to impose deep output cuts, 2 million barrels a day.

That has immediately spurred a recovery in oil prices, something the US would least like to see as that will serve to generate more public discontent in the country before the midterm elections, and that will also increase Russia's revenue from oil exports.

The decision is a humiliation for the Biden administration, as it had pinned its midterm election hopes on the OPEC-plus' cooperativeness and it believes the US' regional allies should show their due concerns to its urgent need to curb the soaring price of oil as that has the potential to become the last straw breaking the back of the Democrats in the upcoming elections.

The production cuts by OPEC-plus might become a special gift for Biden, changing the course of the US politics, as his administration regards any decline of gas price at home, even by just a few cents, as a great political achievement.

That explains the overreaction by Biden's disappointed team members, who openly criticized OPEC-plus for their shortsighted and irresponsible decision. It should not be forgotten that Biden visited Saudi Arabia in July to lobby Riyadh to increase oil output, hoping Riyadh could persuade other neighbors to do the same as well. But that proved to be only a wishful thinking.

It is natural that the oil-producing countries seek to maintain the oil price at a reasonable level by taking advantage of their position to adjust output accordingly. The US administration has no rights to interfere in their decision-making.

Although some of the OPEC members are US allies, the troubles the US has created in the Middle East through starting wars, installing puppet regimes and forming cliques have driven home to the regional countries that the US has never regarded them as true friends but rather considers them expedient partners.

Some of them have good relations with Russia. They have to balance between Moscow and Washington as well.

So the disappointment if not fury the Biden administration has exhibited over the OPEC-plus' decision is nothing but a proof of its own misjudgment of the situation as well as its lack of political wisdom to resolve the complicated entanglement of interests.