Pariahs no more? US reaches out to oil states as prices rise

Three checkered oil regimes that President Joe Biden and past U.S. leaders have spectacularly snubbed — Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran — are the targets of U.S. outreach as global fuel prices hit record highs during the Ukraine crisis

WASHINGTON -- Three checkered oil regimes that President Joe Biden and past U.S. leaders have spectacularly snubbed — Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran — are now targets of U.S. outreach as global fuel prices reach jarring levels during the Ukraine crisis.

But it’s not clear any U.S. diplomacy could get more crude oil on the market fast enough to help the current supply crunch, or tear once-shunned oil states away from what — for Saudi Arabia in particular — are profitable alliances with Russia.

For the Biden administration, the U.S. overtures to three problematic oil giants at best could lead to stabilizing rising oil and gas prices and draw those governments closer to the West and away from Russia and China. At worst, Biden risks humiliating rebuffs and condemnation for outreach to governments accused of rights abuses and violence.

“We have an interest globally in maintaining a ... steady supply of energy, including through diplomatic effort,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday on the moves toward countries that have been out of U.S. or Biden administration favor, and in the case of Iran an armed threat. “We have a multiplicity of interests, and use diplomacy to try to advance them."