"Absolutely not true," Prince Bandar bin Sultan said of the claim made by journalist Bob Woodward
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States denied Monday a claim that he promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before the November election, Reuters reports.
"Absolutely not true," Prince Bandar bin Sultan said of the claim made by journalist Bob Woodward in an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" on Sunday. Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, was discussing his new book "Plan of Attack," about the Bush administration's planning for the war in Iraq.
Woodward said Bandar pledged that the Saudis would try to fine-tune oil prices to ensure the U.S. economy is strong for November's presidential election, a move they understood would favor Bush.
"This is not true because our policy has been always to keep the prices between 22 to 28 (dollars per barrel), and the oil situation is something constant," Bandar told CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" program.
Bandar said Bush, a Republican, had expressed concern about the impact of rising oil prices on the U.S. and world economies, but said it was an issue that he had also discussed in the past with with Democratic presidents.
