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 Obama's visit comes as Washington struggles with worsening strife
in the Middle East and counts Saudi Arabia among its few steady
partners in a campaign against Islamic State militants who have
seized swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The U.S. security headache worsened last week with the resignation
of Yemen's government after clashes in the capital involving
Iran-backed rebels - a setback to U.S. efforts to contain al Qaeda
in that country and to limit the regional influence of Shi'ite
Muslim Iran.
The Yemen government's collapse will be of deep concern to Saudi
Arabia because of the long border they share and because of the
advance of Iran, Sunni Saudi's main regional rival.
Saudi Arabia's role in rallying Arab support for action with Western
countries against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, has
won praise in Washington, which along with other Western nations
values the kingdom as an important market for its defense
industries.
 Following Abdullah's death last week, Obama will try to get
relations off to a smooth start with new Saudi King Salman, who
takes power after a period of sometimes tense relations between
Washington and Riyadh. Showing how crucial the Saudi alliance is for
Obama, he cut short his visit to India to lead a high-ranking
delegation to Riyadh.
“Whatever the final communique says, the subjects most likely to be
discussed … are Syria, Iran, ISIS, and oil prices,” wrote Simon
Henderson, an expert on U.S.-Saudi relations at the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy.
"The most interesting question for President Obama will be whether
King Salman and his team of advisers have an order of priority that
differs from King Abdullah's,” he said.
U.S. criticism of Saudi Arabia over its human rights record has
normally been low-key and may remain so. Saudi authorities have been
criticized by international rights groups for jailing several
prominent activists, and for the public flogging this month of a
blogger.
But the White House may feel pressure to at least give a nod to
human rights concerns, insisting as it often does that Obama takes
up such issues in private with allied leaders.
Despite an alliance between the two countries that has long been a
cornerstone of U.S. Middle East policy, the oil-rich kingdom has
made clear its impatience with the Obama administration’s failure to
do more to oust Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and its anxiety over
U.S.–led efforts to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran.
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This added to a sense among Saudi rulers that Obama was neglecting
old Arab allies, most notably with the U.S. abandonment of Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak when he was toppled by mass protests in
early 2011.
U.S.-Saudi relations have improved in recent months after Obama made
a fence-mending visit to Riyadh last March.
The two countries have found renewed purpose for their security
partnership in the joint fight against Islamic State, though Saudi
Arabia remains unhappy with Obama’s resistance to large-scale U.S.
arming of the mainstream Syrian rebels.
Even though an energy-self-sufficient United States no longer relies
on Saudi oil supplies, the kingdom’s willingness to keep oil output
high despite tumbling global oil prices has bolstered Obama’s
domestic economic recovery efforts as well as his strategy of
keeping pressure on oil producers Russia and Iran. Both those
nations are under international sanctions.
Still looming, however, is the prospect of a nuclear deal with Iran,
which would be a major legacy achievement for Obama but which Saudi
Arabia, the Middle East’s top Sunni power, worries could help
strengthen Tehran’s influence in the region.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; writing by
Stuart Grudgings, Editing by William Maclean)
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