US president Barack Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday at the start of a short Middle East tour in his continuing effort to reach out to the Muslim world.
US president Barack Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday at the start of a short Middle East tour in his continuing effort to reach out to the Muslim world. King Abdullah greeted Obama at Riyadh’s main airport with a ceremony after an overnight flight from Washington.
Obama and Abdullah then chatted briefly in public and shook hands. Then, they retreated to hold private talks on a range of issues set to include the Arab-Israeli conflict, diplomatic overtures toward Iran and oil prices. After talks in Riyadh, Obama will deliver a keynote speech in Cairo.
While giving away few clues on what he would say, Obama has made it clear that he will not be making a serious attack on Egypt’s, and the region’s, human rights record. He described Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as a “stalwart ally” and said that the job of the US is “not to lecture”.
Obama said he thought that democratic rights reflected universal – not just western – values, but added: “The danger I think is that when the US or any country thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture … I think the thing we can do most importantly is serve as a role model.”
Saudi Arabia can be expected to press Obama to exert more pressure on the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, who is resisting the idea of Palestinian statehood and has rebuffed US calls to halt the expansion of settlements in the West Bank. Afghanistan and Pakistan are also on the agenda as the US seeks Saudi help to counter the spread of the Taliban in both countries.
US defence secretary, Robert Gates, has asked the Saudis for help. “Saudi Arabia has a lot of influence throughout the entire region, and a long-standing and close relationship with Pakistan,” Gates said after a visit to the kingdom last month.
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