Sunday 19 June 2022 09:07 PM Biden WILL meet with Saudi Crown Prince to talk oil prices Energy Sec Granholm ... trends now

Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm said she thinks President Biden will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin-Salman to talk gas prices when he visits Saudi Arabia next month. 

'I think he will meet with the Saudi crown prince,' Granholm told CNN's State of the Union, after President Biden said days ago that he would not meet with the crown prince. 

Granholm says a meeting will take place, but her insistence is only the latest in a line of mixed messaging on the trip.  

'I'm not going to meet with MBS. I'm going to an international meeting and he's going to be part of it,' Biden told reporters Friday at the White House before he left to spend the weekend in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

Biden will be in Jeddah in mid-July to attend a meeting of the GCC plus 3 summit to talk oil production. While there he will meet with the aging Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

The White House has noted that Salman's team, which includes his son and heir MBS, will simply be a part of that meeting. MBS will also be a part of the GCC plus 3 summit, which Saudi chairs.

But the kingdom said that MBS and Biden would be meeting unilaterally.

'The crown prince and President Biden will hold official talks that will focus on various areas of bilateral cooperation and joint efforts to address regional and global challenges,' the country said in a statement when Biden's trip was announced.

On Tuesday when it was announced that he would travel to Saudi Arabia, the world's second largest holder of petroleum reserves, a White House official told reporters in a briefing call that Biden did in fact plan to meet with the crown prince. 

But the White House has downplayed the meeting with MBS, saying the president will meet with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and that the crown prince will be a part of that.

'Yes, we can expect the president to see the Crown Prince as well,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, in its statement on the trip, said Biden and MBS would meet.

'The crown prince and President Biden will hold official talks that will focus on various areas of bilateral cooperation and joint efforts to address regional and global challenges,' the statement said.

But White House deputy spokesman John Kirby said Biden will meet with the King and the meeting with MBS will be a part of that.

‘He's going to meet bilaterally with King Salman and King Salman’s team and the crown prince is part of that team. I suspect he'll see the crown prince in the context of the meetings. He's grateful for the king's willingness to host the GCC plus three. He's looking forward to, again, a wide scope of discussions,' he said on MSNBC's Morning Joe.

The trip comes as gas prices in the United States continue to surge, a key domestic issue Biden hopes to tackle going into November's midterm election.

Over the weekend, the national average for a gallon of gas reached $5 for the first time in American history.

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest producer of oil, and as a key member of OPEC plays a large part in setting oil prices worldwide.

And in another move to address record gas prices, a federal gas tax holiday is 'certainly worth considering' to lower gas prices, Treasury Sec. Janet Yellen told ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday morning. 

Average gas prices breached $5 per gallon last week for the first time ever last and have dipped slightly to $4.98 as of Sunday. 

Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether a gas tax holiday was a potential short-term solution, Yellen replied: 'President Biden wants to do anything he possibly can to help consumers. Gas prices have risen a great deal and it's clearly burdening

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