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Obama Says ‘Deeply Held Grievance’ Led Putin to Seek Crimea Obama Meets With Saudi King in Effort to Mend Ties
(about 4 hours later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday attributed Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its buildup of troops at the border of Ukraine to a deep-seated resentment by President Vladimir V. Putin about the fall of the Soviet Union. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Obama met with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Friday evening in a bid to improve relations that have been seriously strained over the civil war in Syria, negotiations with Iran, and Saudi fears that the United States is pulling back from the region.
“I think he’s been willing to show a deeply held grievance about what he considers to be the loss of the Soviet Union,” Mr. Obama told Scott Pelley of CBS News in an interview Friday as the president was leaving Rome for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Obama met with the king at his desert camp northeast of Riyadh. Secretary of State John Kerry and Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, accompanied Mr. Obama to the meeting.
Mr. Putin, the president added, “has said that he considers the breakup of the Soviet Union to be tragic. I think there’s a strong sense of Russian nationalism and a sense that somehow the West has taken advantage of Russia in the past.” The Obama administration’s relations with the Saudis have been seriously strained in recent months by differences over Syria.
Mr. Obama drew attention to the massing of Russian troops along the border of Ukraine, and urged Moscow to enter into talks about a peaceful resolution of the conflict with Ukraine. He said the presence of Russian forces could be an attempt to intimidate Ukraine, or it could be a signal of future military moves. Saudi Arabia and other gulf states have favored a greater effort to arm and train Syrian rebels who have taken up arms against President Bashar al-Assad. In February, the top American intelligence official told Congress that Mr. Assad’s hold on power had been strengthened after he agreed to get rid of his chemical weapons arsenal and the White House shelved plans for a military strike.
Mr. Obama has been traveling in Europe this week, meeting with Western leaders to devise a comprehensive response to Russia’s actions in Crimea and to reassure Eastern European allies nervous about Russia’s advance. Benjamin J. Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Mr. Obama’s flight to Riyadh that efforts to strengthen the Syrian opposition, politically and militarily, would be one of the principal topics of discussion on Friday.
In the interview, portions of which were broadcast on “CBS This Morning,” Mr. Obama called on Mr. Putin to pull back Russia’s troops and begin direct negotiations with the Ukrainian government. “There’s not a specific announcement forthcoming around additional assistance,” said Mr. Rhodes, who asserted that progress between Washington and Riyadh had already been made in coordinating “who we’re providing assistance to and what types of assistance we’re providing.”
“You would have thought that after a couple of decades that there’d be an awareness on the part of any Russian leader that the path forward is not to revert back to the kinds of practices that were so prevalent during the Cold War,” Mr. Obama said, “but in fact to move forward with further integration with the world economy and to be a responsible international citizen.” Mr. Rhodes, however, said the United States was still worried about proposals to give the Syrian rebels shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles known as manpads.
Mr. Pelley also asked Mr. Obama about the president’s impressions of Pope Francis, who met with the president on Thursday. “We have made clear that there are certain types of weapons, including manpads, that could pose a proliferation risk if introduced into Syria,” he said. “We continue to have those concerns.”
“He projects the kind of humility and kindness that is consistent with my understanding, at least, of Jesus’s teachings,” Mr. Obama said. “He seems to have a good sense of humor.” The Saudis are also anxious about American policy toward Iran, their main regional rival. The United States and five other world powers have signed an interim agreement to temporarily freeze much of Iran’s nuclear program and are trying to negotiate a more comprehensive agreement.
“I think that his simplicity and his belief in the power of the spiritual over the material reflects itself in everything that he says and does,” he said. “And I suspect my sense is that he’s a little bit uncomfortable with all the trappings of being pope.” Mr. Rhodes said that the United States still had concerns over “Iranian behavior in the region,” including “its support for Assad, its support for Hezbollah, its destabilizing actions in Yemen and the gulf.”
More of the interview is to be broadcast on “CBS Evening News” on Friday. Egypt has been another point of contention between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which supported the Egyptian military’s ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s democratically elected president, who was backed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
In Saudi Arabia, Mr. Obama will meet with King Abdullah and take part in a dinner at the king’s desert compound. The trip is partly a fence-mending effort by the White House, which has seen relations with the monarchy sour in the wake of its hesitance to use force in Syria and efforts to negotiate a nuclear agreement with Iran. Mr. Rhodes said the United States was concerned about the “shockingly large” number of death sentences handed down in Egypt recently.
In a briefing for reporters just before the president left the United States for Europe, Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, said that the meeting was intended to “strengthen” and “deepen” the relationship between the two countries. Mr. Obama’s message to the Saudis, he said, would be that “we have a shared interest in stability,” but that this policy would be best supported by “Egypt sticking to a democratic road map.”
“Syria will be a topic of conversation,” Ms. Rice said. “So will Iran and the nuclear negotiations. They will talk about, I imagine, the situation in Egypt and the Middle East peace process. There will be a range of issues on the agenda.” Mr. Obama planned to spend the night in Riyadh and fly to Washington on Saturday.
Mr. Kerry has also been involved in an effort to salvage the Middle East peace talks, which have been jeopardized by a dispute between the Palestinians and the Israelis over the expected release of a fourth group of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Mr. Kerry had not yet decided whether to return to Washington on Saturday or stay in the region.
Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said that Mr. Kerry and Ambassador Martin S. Indyk, his chief envoy to the peace talks, were working “intensively with the parties” on the issue.