BEIRUT, June 29. /TASS/. Saudi Arabia and its partners at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will not support the intention of the West to cap prices on Russian oil on the global market. This is what Mohammed Diab, expert on the world economy at the Lebanese Institute of Economic Studies, told TASS.

"The era when oil-producing monarchies were ready to fulfill any demand of the United States and the West has passed. The modern political elite in the GCC countries pursues a balanced policy and is interested in maintaining partnership relations with Russia, so the reaction to such a decision on behalf of Arab oil exporters from Saudi Arabia to Algeria will be negative," Diab said.

According to him, it is difficult to imagine how the participants of the G7 summit in Elmau will be able to implement their plan to deprive Russia of a part of export profits.

"It is obvious that for the OPEC, which shares a common strategy to stabilize the situation on world markets with Russia, this initiative is unprofitable," Diab emphasized.

"This step threatens chaos and is aimed at destroying the mechanism for adjusting oil prices under OPEC+," he added.

According to the Lebanese analyst, India and China, which buy large volumes of crude oil and oil products from Russia, will not welcome the G7's attempts to force Russia to sell its oil at lower prices.

"However, we can expect that the US and the West will put strong pressure on India, as well as on the GCC countries, ahead of the Arab-American summit in Jeddah on July 16, which will be attended by US President Joe Biden," Diab noted.

According to him, the G7 countries are in a hurry to withdraw part of Russia's export revenues in order to bring down world oil prices by the autumn elections in the United States. "The price of gasoline in America has become a political issue, and the sell-out of oil reserves to lower world prices has so far had little effect," he concluded.

G7 decision

Head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel announced plans to cap the price of the Russian oil at the G7 summit in Elmau. According to Michel, for this purpose it is necessary to form a coalition that includes not only the EU and the US.

On Monday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the G7 countries continue to work on an agreement to limit the price of Russian oil at the global market. He noted that the ministers of finance and energy of the G7 would need to agree on the technical aspects of the implementation of this decision.

The embargo imposed by the EU and the US on the purchase of Russian oil led to a sharp surge in prices, which allowed Moscow to redirect large volumes of crude oil to other markets, primarily to India and China. Due to this, even by selling smaller volumes of oil Russia has increased its revenues as a result of Western sanctions, while the EU and the US suffer net losses, including the spillover effect in the form of inflation.