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Obama Meets With Saudi King in Effort to Mend Ties Obama Offers Assurance to Saudis on Syria Stance
(about 5 hours later)
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. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Obama reassured King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Friday that the United States remained committed to strengthening the moderate opposition in the Syrian civil war, administration officials said.
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. But aides declined to reveal whether Mr. Obama and the king agreed to any significant expansion of the covert program to train and arm the Syrian opposition. Relations between the two countries have become strained in recent months, in part over Saudi frustration with the United States’ reluctance to provide arms that could end up in the hands of jihadists and extremists in Syria.
The Obama administration’s relations with the Saudis have been seriously strained in recent months by differences over Syria. “The emergence of some more extremist elements within the opposition only reinforces the need to strengthen the more moderate opposition,” a senior administration official told reporters in Riyadh after a two-hour meeting at the king’s palatial desert compound. “We have been improving that coordination and planning with our partners and allies.”
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 met with Abdullah at the end of the president’s weeklong tour through Europe, which focused primarily on bolstering the European response to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine. In Saudi Arabia, the president shifted his focus to another region racked by conflict.
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. Officials said the face-to-face meeting with King Abdullah was an opportunity to confront the perception of a serious split between the United States and Saudi Arabia.
“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.” Saudi Arabia and other gulf states have favored a greater effort to arm and train rebels who have taken up arms against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Last year, however, the White House abruptly shelved plans for a military strike after Mr. Assad agreed to a Russian proposal to get rid of his chemical weapons arsenal.
Mr. Rhodes, however, said the United States was still worried about proposals to give the Syrian rebels shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles known as manpads. In February, the director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., told Congress that Mr. Assad’s hold on power had strengthened, and Robert S. Ford, the recently retired envoy to Syria, said that his government was likely to survive in the medium term.
Saudi leaders have also expressed alarm at Mr. Obama’s diplomatic initiative with Iran to halt much of that country’s nuclear program, which they consider a serious threat to the region. Officials said Iran was a key topic of discussion between the president and the king.
American officials described the perception of a rift as overstated, and while conceding some differences in approach on Syria and Iran, they added that the meeting underlined the enduring alliance of the two countries.
“Our strategic interests are much more aligned than different,” an official said, speaking anonymously in order to discuss the private meeting between the leaders.
While the tone of the administration’s comments on Friday might have been welcomed by the Saudis, it remained unclear if the Obama administration’s policy on Syria would make a significant difference on the battlefield, where the opposition has been struggling.
Benjamin J. Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said 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.” But he added that the United States was still worried about proposals to give the rebels shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles known as manpads.
“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.”“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.”
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. 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. Mr. Rhodes said the United States was concerned about the “shockingly large” number of death sentences recently handed down in Egypt.
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.” “We have a shared interest in stability,” Mr. Rhodes said, but this policy would be best supported by “Egypt sticking to a democratic road map.”
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. Several groups had urged the president to raise the subject of the kingdom’s treatment of women and accusations of human rights abuses. Officials said it did not come up at the meeting.
Mr. Rhodes said the United States was concerned about the “shockingly large” number of death sentences handed down in Egypt recently.
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.”
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.