Washington talks with Emirati and Saudi officials

 A US State Department spokeswoman confirmed that the United States is closely following the OPEC Plus negotiations and their impact on the global economic recovery from the Corona pandemic.

"We are not a party to these talks, but since the end of last week we have had a number of high-level talks with officials in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and other relevant partners," the ministry's spokeswoman said in a statement to Al-Hurra TV.

"We are encouraged by the ongoing talks by OPEC members towards an agreement that would promote access to affordable and reliable energy," the spokeswoman added.

The oil dispute between Saudi Arabia and the UAE shed light on the two different paths that the two traditional close allies follow in many files, with the economic competition intensifying between them in recent years.

The UAE strongly opposed a proposal from the "OPEC Plus" alliance, describing it as "unfair", which caused the postponement of the agreement, which could hinder the process of balancing prices in the crude market during the Covid epidemic crisis.

The UAE ranks fourth in the ranks of the 23 OPEC Plus producers, behind Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The Emirati position constitutes a rare challenge to Saudi Arabia in the oil market from a close ally. And the Kingdom is the largest exporter of crude in the world and the owner and largest economy in the Arab world.

And on Monday, the ministerial meeting of the 23 member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC Plus) was again postponed due to the failure to reach an agreement.

The "OPEC Plus" meeting was scheduled to conclude last week, and was devoted to determining the cartel's production quotas as of next August, but the UAE rejected a plan to be negotiated, considering it "unfair".

The proposed plan provides for an increase in oil production by 400,000 barrels per day every month from August to December, so that the additional amount of oil put on the market by the end of the year will reach two million barrels per day.