The tightest of smiles on his face and the fabric of his traditional thobe swirling about him as he strides through a hallway at UN climate talks, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister expresses shock at repeated complaints that the world’s largest oil producer is working behind the scenes to sabotage negotiations.

“What you have been hearing is a false allegation and a cheat and a lie,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman al Saud said this week at the talks in Glasgow, Scotland. He was responding to journalists pressing for a response to claims that Saudi Arabia’s negotiators have been working to block climate measures that would threaten demand for oil.

“We have been working well” with the head of the UN climate talks and others, Prince Abdulaziz said.

While pledging to join emission-cutting efforts at home, Saudi leaders have made clear they intend to pump and sell their oil as long as demand lasts.

Saudi Arabia’s team in Glasgow has introduced proposals ranging from a call to quit negotiations at 6 pm every day to what climate negotiation veterans allege are complex efforts to play country factions against one another with the aim of blocking agreement on tough steps to wrench the world away from coal, gas and oil.