OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) has decided now would be a good time to decrease production. This will drive up oil prices and should help Vlad Putin finance his expansionist incursion into Ukraine. Putin’s gods in Mordor have been trying to regain control over Ukraine since their boy Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity in 2014.
The two big players in OPEC are Iran and Saudi Arabia.
It is not surprising Iranian Ayatollah Khameini’s government would support a production cut. His country has been experiencing internal strife since at least 2020. Iranians are currently demonstrating against the government over the death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, who was in custody for not wearing a hijab (Reuters).
The US has been distancing itself with the Saudi government since the death of Jamal Khashoggi. Widely touted as a modernist Muslim, he was a reporter who contributed to western press companies. Kashoggi was a employee of the Saudi government. He fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile, the reason hasn’t been established. He then became highly critical of the Saudi government.
Khashoggi was not always a reformist. In his youth he was a member of the Muslim brotherhood. He was friends with Osama bin Laden during his jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Khashoggi opposed the Saudi intervention in Yemen.
According to The Washington Post, while “Khashoggi was once sympathetic to Islamist movements, he moved toward a more liberal, secular point of view, according to experts on the Middle East who have tracked his career.” (WIkipedia).
Whatever his real views, his obvious rivalry with Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salaman made him the perfect way to get at the Saudi government. He disappeared in Turkiye. It has been claimed by the CIA, and aspiring president for life Recep Erdogan, he was last seen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Phil (calls himself Rommel but wasn’t) worked for Aramco in Saudi Arabia, going forth to handle the Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein. Always out to cover his past, distance between the US and Saudi Arabia would be in his perceived interest. It is also benefits the Shia Empire he and his goons are creating.