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Obama Arrives in Saudi Arabia Amid a New Round of Contention Obama and King Salman of Saudi Arabia Meet, but Deep Rifts Remain
(about 11 hours later)
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Obama and King Salman of Saudi Arabia met in Riyadh on Wednesday amid deepening tensions between their two governments over Iran, the fight against terrorism and the potential release of long-delayed documents said to implicate Saudi officials in the Sept. 11 attacks. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Obama and King Salman of Saudi Arabia spent more than two hours in a closed-door meeting that American officials said was cordial but underscored deep differences with the kingdom over Iran, human rights and the best way to fight terror.
Mr. Obama arrived at Erga Palace after a brief motorcade trip along an empty highway lined with palm trees and past well-manicured royal grounds. The two leaders met in Riyadh on Wednesday against the backdrop of a public debate in the United States Congress about a bill that would allow the Saudi government to be held legally responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks if it is established that any officials played a role a charge Saudi officials have long denied.
The president and the king briefly traded pleasantries under a large glass chandelier in a reception room before beginning their private meeting. Administration officials said the issue of the Sept. 11 attacks did not come up during the meeting with the king at Erga Palace, an opulent compound lined with palm trees and well-manicured royal grounds.
“I and the Saudi people are very pleased that you, Mr. President, are visiting us in the kingdom,” King Salman said. American officials said Mr. Obama pressed King Salman to be more open to engaging in diplomacy with Iran and to to find alternatives to direct confrontation with Iranian leaders and other rivals in the region. They described the king as highly skeptical of efforts to work with Iran, the Saudis’ chief rival in the region and the backer of rebels in Yemen that the Saudis are fighting.
Mr. Obama responded that the American people were “very grateful for your hospitality.” Mr. Obama also reiterated his view that Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf nations needed to rely less on the United States for their security, officials said. Similar comments by Mr. Obama in a recent article in the magazine The Atlantic had increased the friction between the two governments, but American officials who attended the meeting with the king said the president did not apologize for them.
But the brief exchange was hardly representative of the contentious issues on the agenda for both leaders. Mr. Obama arrived in the kingdom barely a day after publicly expressing support for releasing documents about possible Saudi involvement in the 2001 terrorist attacks. In a statement released after the meeting, the White House stressed the areas of agreement between Mr. Obama and the king, saying that they “reaffirmed the historic friendship and deep strategic partnership” between their two nations. But the statement also noted that the two leaders merely “exchanged views” on several topics, suggesting a lack of agreement in those areas.
Saudis on social media were quick to note that while state television had closely covered the arrival of Persian Gulf heads of state, who were welcomed on the tarmac with pomp and circumstance by King Salman, Mr. Obama had been received by a much smaller delegation, headed by the governor of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. His arrival was not shown on state television. The meeting exposed what one senior administration official at the meeting said were tactical differences even as the two nations broadly have similar goals on fighting terror and maintaining stability in the Middle East. The official said the Saudis preferred to confront terror threats only with force while the United States was seeking an approach that also included diplomatic efforts in the region. The sharpest exchange, the official said, came when Mr. Obama criticized the kingdom’s human rights record, raising the issues of harsh sentences and beheadings. The king repeatedly defended the Saudi justice system.
The documents 28 pages of intelligence from a congressional report have fueled suspicions for years, despite the conclusion of the official 9/11 Commission that no senior officials in the kingdom were involved in the attacks. Mr. Obama also met separately with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, before Thursday’s summit meeting of several Persian Gulf nations. A statement from White House officials said the two men discussed the war in Yemen, the Islamic State, Iran’s “destabilizing activities in the region” and the volatile political situation in Libya. The United Arab Emirates has taken an aggressive military role in the Middle East, sending troops and fighter aircraft for the war in Yemen and joining the coalition striking the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
The charge, which Saudi officials deny, is one of a series of delicate diplomatic issues that Mr. Obama is certain to confront during discussions with the Saudi monarch. Saudis on social media were quick to note that while state television had closely covered the arrival of Persian Gulf heads of state, who were welcomed on the tarmac with embraces and kisses by King Salman, Mr. Obama had been received by a much smaller delegation, headed by the governor of Riyadh, the Saudi capital. His arrival was not shown on state television. American officials said they did not perceive the reception at the airport as a snub of Mr. Obama, noting that the Saudis had offered to host a grand lunch buffett for the president complete with much more royal pomp and circumstance but Mr. Obama’s schedule required him to arrive too late for that.
The Obama administration’s deal with Iran to limit that country’s nuclear program has unnerved the kingdom. The president’s decision not to order airstrikes against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in 2013 was viewed in the kingdom as hesitation in the face of an implacable foe. And the Saudis were angered by Mr. Obama’s comments in a recent article in The Atlantic in which he suggested that Persian Gulf countries were not pulling their weight in assuring the region’s security. Mr. Obama arrived in the kingdom barely a day after publicly expressing support for releasing the Sept. 11 documents. Those documents 28 pages of intelligence from a congressional report have fueled suspicions for years that some Saudi officials played a role in the attack.
Just before leaving for his six-day trip to the Middle East and Europe, Mr. Obama told CBS News that he hoped that the confidential section of the congressional report would be released soon, though he cautioned that the information it contained might not be conclusive.Just before leaving for his six-day trip to the Middle East and Europe, Mr. Obama told CBS News that he hoped that the confidential section of the congressional report would be released soon, though he cautioned that the information it contained might not be conclusive.
He said in the CBS interview that his director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., was reviewing the documents for possible release, but he urged an orderly process, saying that “what can end up happening is, if you just dump a whole bunch of stuff out there that nobody knows exactly how credible it is, was it verified or not, it could end up creating problems.” Before Mr. Obama’s trip, White House officials repeatedly acknowledged tensions between the two governments. The Obama administration’s deal with Iran to limit that country’s nuclear program has unnerved the kingdom. The president’s decision not to order airstrikes against the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in 2013 was viewed in the kingdom as hesitation in the face of an implacable foe.
Some top Saudi officials, like the former foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, who died in July, had called for the classified pages to be released, saying that the kingdom had nothing to hide and wanted to confront any accusations in the report. Aides had said they hoped that the common cause of combating terrorism and regional instability would be enough to ensure a productive meeting with the king.
Questions about the possibility of Saudi involvement in the terrorist attacks almost 15 years ago have also given rise to a bill in Congress that would allow American citizens to sue the Saudi government. The legislation has strong, bipartisan support; Saudi officials have threatened to sell off nearly $1 trillion in assets if the bill becomes law. For their part, Saudi officials used the meeting to gauge the extent of change in their decades-old alliance with the United States, while also knowing that Mr. Obama’s days in the White House are counting down.
In the CBS interview, Mr. Obama said he opposed the legislation because it would open the United States government to legal retaliation from citizens of other countries, adding: “This is not just a bilateral U.S.-Saudi issue. This is a matter of how, generally, the United States approaches our interactions with other countries.”
Taken together, the possible release of the documents and the pending legislation have added one more serious point of contention that Mr. Obama will face during the meeting with King Salman and other gulf leaders during his visit.
“The challenge, of course, is that the two sides have very different views on what a more assertive, more confident gulf role in the region, and more confident role of the Saudis in particular, would look like,” said Perry Cammack, a former State Department official who is now an associate in the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Before Mr. Obama’s trip, White House officials repeatedly acknowledged the tensions, saying they had grown out of the difficulty in confronting what they called the region’s most tumultuous period in decades. Rob Malley, the president’s top Middle East adviser, told reporters last week that “our views and those of some of our partners in the region, and Saudi Arabia in particular, have not always been perfectly aligned.”
Yet aides said they hoped that the common cause of combating terrorism and regional instability would be enough to ensure a productive meeting with the king, as well as a positive summit meeting with other Persian Gulf leaders on Thursday.
For their part, Saudi officials will be trying to gauge the extent of change in their decades-old alliance with the United States, while also knowing that Mr. Obama’s days in the White House are counting down.
“The Saudis enjoyed a good strategic relationship that kept the region stable and allowed them to benefit from their wealth, so when this changed, there was a psychological response,” said Awadh al-Badi, a scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. “This is the defining moment: Is it the country, or is it Obama? If it is the country, then things here need to change.”“The Saudis enjoyed a good strategic relationship that kept the region stable and allowed them to benefit from their wealth, so when this changed, there was a psychological response,” said Awadh al-Badi, a scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh. “This is the defining moment: Is it the country, or is it Obama? If it is the country, then things here need to change.”
In Britain, Mr. Obama will also try to mend fences after he suggested in the Atlantic article that Europeans were “free riders” in securing the Continent. And he specifically criticized the British prime minister, David Cameron, as being “distracted” during the 2011 military campaign that killed Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. After the Gulf summit meeting on Thursday, Mr. Obama will head to London, where he will also try to mend fences after he suggested in The Atlantic article that Europeans were “free riders” in securing the Continent. And he specifically criticized the British prime minister, David Cameron, as being “distracted” during the 2011 military campaign that led to the ouster and killing of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya.
The president is also likely to weigh in on the fate of the European Union as British voters prepare to decide in a referendum whether the country will leave it. Mr. Obama has said he opposes a British exit from the bloc, a possibility that is commonly referred to as “Brexit.” The president is also likely to weigh in on the fate of the European Union as British voters prepare to decide in a referendum whether the country will leave the bloc. Mr. Obama has said he opposes a British exit.
“The E.U. is one of the great accomplishments of the post-World War II era,” said Charles A. Kupchan, the senior director for European affairs at the National Security Council. “It has succeeded in helping remove war from Europe, and we are concerned about the health and vitality of that experiment.”
“We would not want to see a Brexit that could potentially damage the European Union and increase the challenges that it faces,” he added.
Yet Mr. Obama’s support may arrive too late. Mr. Cameron has been campaigning for Britain to remain in the union, but his political standing has been undermined by revelations from the leak of financial documents in Panama that he profited from an offshore investment fund.
“A lot of the credibility of the ‘remain’ campaign is about his popularity,” said Heather A. Conley, a former deputy assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush, and now a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “When he has a tough day, that’s a bad day for the referendum as well.”
Mr. Obama will conclude his trip with a visit to Germany, where he plans to tour the country’s largest industrial trade show and deliver a speech about the broad challenges still facing Europe.Mr. Obama will conclude his trip with a visit to Germany, where he plans to tour the country’s largest industrial trade show and deliver a speech about the broad challenges still facing Europe.
Benjamin J. Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser, said the speech presented an opportunity for Mr. Obama to “step back” and talk about the future of Europe even as it faces terrorism, a refugee crisis, fighting in Ukraine and economic slowdowns. Benjamin J. Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser, said the speech presented an opportunity for Mr. Obama to “step back” and talk about the future of Europe even as it faces terrorism, a refugee crisis, a continued tug-of-war with Russia over Ukraine and economic slowdowns.