Gulf | Saudi Arabia
Obama visits Saudi king in bid to open Muslim dialogue
US President Obama meets Saudi king to seek advice before long-awaited speech in Cairo.
- By Layelle Saad, GCC/Middle East Editor
- Published: 11:05 June 3, 2009
- Image Credit: AP
- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (left) welcomes US President Barack Obama (right) upon his arrival.
Riyadh: President Barack Obama praised the United States' long strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and said his visit was to seek King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz's advice before making his much-heralded speech to the Islamic world in Cairo.
"I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek His Majesty's counsel and discuss with him many of the issues that we confront here in the Middle East," Obama told reporters as he met with the king at a farm near Riyadh.
Obama praised the king's "wisdom and graciousness," noting that the two countries have a long history of friendship and a strategic relationship.
Abdullah thanked Obama and noted that close ties between the two countries go back to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and King Abdullah.
"I am confident that, working together, the United States and Saudi Arabia can make progress on a whole host of issues of mutual interest," Obama said.
The meetings between King Abdullah and Obama, which were expected to cover the Arab-Israeli conflict, US overtures to Iran and oil prices, came on the eve of the US leader's speech in Cairo.
Arab experts told Gulf News that Arabs and Muslims want actions and not words when US President Obama addresses them today at Cairo University.
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"We hope to see concrete measures on the part of the American administration, such as real pressure against the Zionist enemy so that it lifts the Gaza blockade, puts an end to aggression and to colonies," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said.
Concrete measures against Israeli colony expansion, along with a US pullout from Iraq and overall respect for the Muslim world, are among the critical issues Arabs and Muslims want changed.
Many Arabs view America's repeated failure to hold Israel to its international obligations as a major sore point. Today's speech will not likely present a detailed vision of a Mideast peace deal.
Despite widespread cynicism toward US foreign policy by Arabs, recent polls have indicated a rise in popularity for Obama ahead of his visit.
Before leaving Washington, Obama met with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak but ended the meeting at odds over Israel's refusal to halt colony expansion.
"I think Obama does have the respectful attention of the Arab world right now and that if he uses it wisely he will be able to restore the situation that existed prior to the Bush Administration," Nathan Brown, a non-resident scholar at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Gulf News.
Some Arab governments will also be closely listening to Obama's Cairo speech, as the "moderate" pro-Western regimes of Egypt and Saudi Arabia are weary of US overtures to Iran and groups such as Hamas or Hezbollah.
With inputs from Reuters
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