Why Arab States Aren’t Using Oil as a Weapon Against Israel
During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Arab oil producers cut off exports to Israel’s allies. But faced with today’s Israeli war on Gaza, Gulf states dismiss the idea of using the “oil weapon” — an index of how much they have abandoned the Palestinian cause.
Saudi Arabian minister Khalid Al-Falih sits front and center at an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, on November 30, 2017. (Omar Marques / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images)
On November 8, Saudi investment minister Khalid Al-Falih appeared at Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum in Singapore. The network’s senior economics editor Stephanie Flanders quizzed him about how Saudi authorities might respond to the war in the Middle East:
Q: Would you consider economic tools, the oil price for example, to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza?
A: [Laughs, hesitates] First of all, that is not my mandate today . . .
Q: Just between us.
A: I can tell you that is not on the table today. Saudi Arabia is trying to find peace through peaceful discussion.
By the time this exchange took place, Israel, supported by the United States and major European countries, had already been indiscriminately bombing Gaza’s civilian population for a full month, in response to the October 7 Hamas-led attack. Flanders’s question surely made sense in the context of a war that has captivated global media attention — with some ten thousand civilian Palestinian deaths already by the time of this discussion. It also made sense given the historical precedent of the oil supply being used as a political weapon. So, why was her question cause for laughter?
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