Saudi Crown Prince Warns On Possible Spike Of Oil Prices

Saudi Crown Prince Warns On Possible Spike Of Oil Prices

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince warned  that oil prices could spike to “unimaginably high numbers” if the world does not come together to deter Iran, but said he would prefer a political solution to a military one.

Speaking to the CBS program “60 Minutes,” Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, also denied that he ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives nearly a year ago, but said he ultimately bears “full responsibility” as the leader of his country.

While Khashoggi’s death sparked a global uproar and tarnished the crown prince’s reputation, the Trump administration’s tense standoff with Iran, Saudi Arabia’s arch-foe, has more recently dominated U.S. policy toward Riyadh, especially after the September 14 attacks on the heartland of the Saudi oil industry.

“If the world does not take a strong and firm action to deter Iran, we will see further escalations that will threaten world interests,” the crown prince said. “Oil supplies will be disrupted and oil prices will jump to unimaginably high numbers that we haven’t seen in our lifetimes.”

The crown prince, in an interview conducted on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia, said he agreed with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the September 14 attacks, which damaged the world’s biggest petroleum-processing facility and knocked out more than five percent of global oil supply, were an act of war by Iran.