RIYADH – Saudi Arabia rolled out red carpet to welcome US President Barack Obama, who arrived in Riyadh Wednesday on his maiden visit, en route to Cairo to deliver a much-heralded speech.
King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, greeted President Obama at King Khaled International Airport. A band played each country’s national anthem, the Saudi National Guard was on hand and there was a 21-gun salute.
After the airport welcome, Obama traveled to King Abdullah’s farm. Guards on horseback flanked the long driveway, carrying swords and flags of the two countries as the King and his guest arrived at the desert horse farm.
The two leaders then sat together in gilded chairs, sipped cardamom-flavored Arabic coffee from small cups and chatted briefly in public before retreating to hold private talks.
“This is my first visit to Saudi Arabia but I’ve had several conversations with His Majesty and I have been struck by his wisdom and his graciousness,” the president told reporters before going into talks with King Abdullah at his farm.
“As I take this trip and will be visiting Cairo tomorrow I thought it was very important to come to the cradle of Islam and seek His Majesty’s counsel,” Obama said.
“I am confident that working together that the United States and Saudi Arabia can make progress on a whole host of issues of mutual interest.”
The King presented Obama with a gold medallion, which he put around his visitor’s neck and had warm praise for the new US leader, on a key mission designed to address Muslims and reinvigorate Middle East peace talks.
“I also want to express my best wishes to the friendly American people who are represented by a distinguished man who deserves to be in this position,” the King said.
The two leaders were expected to discuss a host of issues, from Arab-Israeli peace efforts to Iran’s nuclear program.
Pakistan is also on the agenda, Mark Lippert, deputy national security adviser, told a news agency.
Obama’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, has already asked the Saudis for help in staving off the spread of militants in Pakistan and encouraging Pakistani officials to work together in countering the terrorist threat.
Obama was due to spend the night at the farm before flying to Cairo for his speech to the Muslim world, which will fulfill a campaign promise last year to deliver an address from a Muslim capital early in his administration.
“I am confident that we’re in a moment where in Islamic countries, I think there’s a recognition that the path of extremism is not actually going to deliver a better life for people,” Obama told NBC News before he left Washington.
“There’s a recognition that simply being anti-American is not going to solve their problems. The steps we’re taking now to leave Iraq takes that issue and defuses it a little bit,” he said, adding that the speech was just a first step in a broader dialogue with the Muslim world on difficult issues.
“What we want to do is open a dialogue,” Obama said in a pre-trip interview with the BBC.
“You know, there are misapprehensions about the West, on the part of the Muslim world. And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West.”
Obama’s meeting with the King Abdullah was his second in three months. The two saw each other at the G-20 summit in London, a meeting both sides called friendly and productive. – With agencies