Obama begins official visit to Saudi Arabia

[BLACKEAGLE]

President Barack Obama began a fence-mending official visit to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Friday and met King Abdullah for talks that aides said would focus on Middle East peace, Iran and ways to strengthen the Syrian opposition.

King Abdullah received Obama in Rawdat Khurayim, a desert camp 60 kilometers (35 miles) northeast of Riyadh shortly after the U.S. president landed in the capital.

President Obama arrives in the Saudi capital Riyadh. (Al Arabiya)

A White House statement said: “In his meetings with King Abdullah in Riyadh, President Obama reiterated the significance the United States places on its strong relationship with Saudi Arabia, which has endured for over 80 years.”

“The United States and Saudi Arabia are working together to address a number of critical bilateral and regional issues, includingresolving the crisis in Syria, preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, counterterrorism efforts to combat extremism, and supporting negotiations to achieve Middle East peace,” the White House statement added.

President Obama arrives in the Saudi capital Riyadh. (Al Arabiya)

Despite their decades-long alliance, the United States and Saudi Arabia faced major rifts in recent years over Obama's outreach to Iran and his lukewarm involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Last year senior Saudi officials warned of a “major shift” away from Washington after bitter disagreements about its
response to the “Arab spring” uprisings, and policy towards Iran and Syria, where Riyadh wants more American support for rebels.

Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters aboard Air Force One on the flight to Saudi Arabia that the issues at the heart of Obama's meetings with Abdullah include Gulf security, Middle East peace, Syria, Iran and Egypt, according to AP.

Secretary of State John Kerry traveled with Obama for what will be the president's third official meeting with the king in six years.

President Obama arrives in the Saudi capital Riyadh. (Al Arabiya)


On Syria, Rhodes said Obama did not plan to make any specific announcements about additional assistance to opposition forces. He said the United States and Saudi Arabia have been working together closely to coordinate their assistance to the rebels.

Rhodes said that coordination has helped put the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia “in a stronger place today than it was in the fall when we had some tactical differences about our Syria policy.”

President Obama arrives in the Saudi capital Riyadh. (Al Arabiya)


“We are in a better place today than we were seven months ago,” Rhodes said.

Obama upset Saudi Arabia by scrapping plans to launch a military strike against Syria, choosing instead to back a plan to strip Syrian President Bashar Assad of his chemical weapons.

Rhodes said Obama would update the king on the nuclear talks with Iran. He said Obama would also make the point that those negotiations do not mean U.S. concerns about other Iranian activities have lessened, including its support for Assad and Hezbollah, as well as its destabilizing activity in Yemen and the Gulf.

“Those concerns remain constant and we're not in any way negotiating those issues in the nuclear talks,” he said.



[With AP and Reuters]

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2014/03/28/Obama-arrives-in-Saudi-Arabia-on-official-visit.html

 

[SHAMK9]

Good for Obama

 

[Falcon29]

America wants all of Syria destroyed before a rebel victory, you gullible Arabs need to face the reality. Just send weapons quit being cowards if you want to help.

Can't Jordan train more rebels? The problem with Egypt is it's a collaborator army, same with almost every other Arab nation and they don't how any strategies. Arabs can't train people, only Arabs who can train rebels for urban warfare are Hezbollah or Hamas.

 

[Sam1980]

Good, Obama shouldn't allow Saudis to fall into Russia's trap.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Good, Obama shouldn't allow Saudis to fall into Russia's trap.

And what trap might this be young man?

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

America wants all of Syria destroyed before a rebel victory, you gullible Arabs need to face the reality. Just send weapons quit being cowards if you want to help.

Can't Jordan train more rebels? The problem with Egypt is it's a collaborator army, same with almost every other Arab nation and they don't how any strategies. Arabs can't train people, only Arabs who can train rebels for urban warfare are Hezbollah or Hamas.

Nobody is gullible here but you yourself. It's not our problem that you see everything black. Look, Hamas and Halesh fvcked up themselves and their people. If you call 2006 and 2009 wars victories, then what does the word "defeat" mean? You people are detached from reality.

 

[Sam1980]

And what trap might this be young man?

Saudi aligning itself with Russia.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Saudi aligning itself with Russia.

That would be the least thing to ever happen.

P.S.

It is nice to see you back, hope you're doing good.

 

[Sam1980]

That would be the least thing to ever happen.

P.S.

It is nice to see you back, hope you're doing good.

Thanks mate, I was banned for unknown reasons.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Thanks mate, I was banned for unknown reasons.

Well, here you're and that what matters.

 

[islamrules]

I believe Obama is less committed to the war on "terror" than the Saudi king, the Saudi leadership is targeting the reformist opposition in the Arab world and the fighting mujahedines at the same time, the head of the Saudi Intels Moqrn Bin Saud was appointed as successor of the successor of the king, that means that the next rulers of Saudi Arabia will have a direct counter "terror" background, makes it easy for the US and the west, but will the Saudi leaders, convince the Syrian Ansars (IF) to fight the muhajerines (Al Qaeda ) ? that is the true question .

 

[Frosty]

This doesn’t even mention China’s possible purchases of oil from Saudi Arabia using yuan, thereby avoiding use of the petrodollar. This is on top of China’s deal to buy Russian energy with yuan. The ongoing movement away from using the dollar as the world’s reserve currency will greatly impact the US economy. This issue is connected, of course, with Iran and it’s oil, but Al-Arabiya makes no mention of any of that.

 

[Falcon29]

Nobody is gullible here but you yourself. It's not our problem that you see everything black. Look, Hamas and Halesh fvcked up themselves and their people. If you call 2006 and 2009 wars victories, then what does the word "defeat" mean? You people are detached from reality.

No I don't, you think the US wants a rebel victory, they don't want it until Syria is completely flattened, every neighborhood and until Hezbollah and Sunni militias capabilities are severely weakened. Shia and Sunni aren't enemies, a lot of Shia are against what's going on in Syria, we Shia and Sunni have dialogue. There are many tv shows where we discuss regional events and religious topics. In reality, we both support the will of the people and the liberation of Palestine over all this unnecessary bloodshed.

What the heck is 'Halesh'?

Only person detached from reality is you, 2009 was an offensive against a besieged strip with a humanitarian crisis. Israel had immense military power and they advanced their capabilities way more than in 2006. 2006 and 2012 were victories since Gaza defended itself from Israeli aggression. Israel did not expect Hamas to become so organized. It was not organized at all in 2009 since it was barely 1 in year in control of the strip and had no time. Now they have changed and become organized and have decent military training.

You have the mentality of some sahaba during the Prophet(SAW) time. They were yelling at the Prophet(SAW) asking him why were we struggling in this battle and why don't you just make prayers for us to win? Go see the Quran verses Allah(SWT) sent after that. Having more casualties on your side doesn't mean you lost the war. It just means the enemy targets civilians and civilian infrastructure because they cannot achieve their military objectives against the resistance.

Arab armies aren't all suited for urban warfare, Syrian regime is, they gained lots of experience yet still. They cannot fight in such scenarios, which is why they asked Hezbollah for help. Because Hezbollah and Hamas fight urban warfare. Egypt's army has decent training, they won't train rebels though. Jordan used to have good training, today Saudi Arabia and Jordanian army aren't there to make sacrifices, they're here for the safety of the leadership.

You are gullible because you believe Arab leaders are dedicated to Syria like yourself. The international world does not see things from your POV, how many times do I have to remind you of that!? Only Arabs see things from our POV and Muslims.

 

[Arabian Legend]

We are going to witness many interesting shifts in dealing with the regional issues, Syria, Palestine, Iran's nuclear programs.

 

[Falcon29]

We are going to witness many interesting shifts in dealing with the regional issues, Syria, Palestine, Iran's nuclear programs.

Could you elaborate more? It seems much attention has been taken off Iran's nuclear program. For Syria, I'm not sure how things are, it still looks like a stalemate. I heard that Saudi Arabia convinced the US to support the opposition further. For Palestine, the 'peace talks' are only to delta a Palestinian UN bid for their state. I'm really looking forward to that.