United States President Barack Obama has concluded his most important overseas trip so far in his six years at the White House. While the first portion of the trip was dominated by events in Crimea and Russia’s new-found expansionist policies, nuclear non-proliferation agreements and a personal meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican, for leaders in the Middle East, the most important part was his Friday’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
The meetings between Obama, accompanied by Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice on the US side, and King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz and senior princes and ministers on the other at least helped clear the air in what has been a strained period of relations between Riyadh and Washington. With the US welcoming overtures from the new and seemingly moderate president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, to reach a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme in a bid to lift crippling economic sanctions, the haste at which the rapprochement has been made is raising alarm bells in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf capitals.
Riyadh has every reason to question the sudden transformation of the leadership in Iran. But make no mistake, just because there’s a moderate president at the helm in Tehran — and that’s a welcome development — the right-wing and extremist clerical factions still hold sway. Political thaws may bring an improvement in economic conditions, but Iran still meddles in the internal politics of Gulf states and is giving material funding to Hezbollah to keep Syrian President Bashar Al Assad in power.
If there was any outward sign of progress in Saudi-US relations as a result of Friday’s meeting, it came in the form of the two sides discussing ways of empowering Syria’s moderate opposition. It is hoped that the measures agreed upon will make a difference in helping to end the brutality of the government forces upon civilians.
Given the terrible toll that barrel bombs have taken on the civilian populations in Daraa and Aleppo, and the effectiveness of aerial attacks from jets and attack helicopters at Al Assad’s disposal, this is at least one positive from the Riyadh gathering.
