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Obama to Saudis: We will not accept a bad Iran deal

Mar 28, 2014 5:28 pm By Robert Spencer

Obama-US-Saudi-Arabia_Horo-1-e1396027024834-635x357While they chant “Death to America!” in Tehran, the mullahs must laugh at Obama’s audacity in trying to get howlers like this past Abdullah, who wasn’t born yesterday. As Iran’s President Rouhani put it: “In Geneva agreement world powers surrendered to Iranian nation’s will.” And the whole world knows it.

“Obama to Saudis: We will not accept a bad Iran deal,” from the Times of Israel, March 28 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

US President Barack Obama reportedly reassured his wary ally King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Friday that the US would not accept a bad nuclear deal with Iran.

During a visit to the king’s desert oasis, the two leaders discussed “tactical differences” in their respective approach to certain issues, but agreed that their countries remained strategically aligned, Reuters quoted a senior US official as saying.

Obama’s Marine One helicopter kicked up clouds of sand in his arrival at the king’s desert camp outside the capital of Riyadh for a meeting and dinner with Abdullah. The president walked through a row of military guards to an ornate room featuring a massive crystal chandelier and took a seat next to the 89-year-old king, who was breathing with the help of an oxygen tank.

Secretary of State John Kerry sat at Obama’s side for the visit that is the president’s third official meeting with the king in six years.

Despite its decades-long alliance with the United States, Saudi’s royal family has become increasingly anxious in recent years over Obama’s nuclear talks with Iran and his tepid involvement in the Syrian civil war. During his evening meetings with the king, Obama’s task was to reassure Saudi Arabia that the US is not abandoning Arab interests despite troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, greater energy independence back home and nuclear talks with predominantly Persian Iran.

White House officials and Mideast experts say the Saudi royal family’s main concern is Iran. They fear Iran’s nuclear program, object to Iran’s backing of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria and see the government of Tehran as having designs on oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

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.

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

Rhodes said that coordination has helped put the US 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.”

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

Obama angered Saudi officials 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 US 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.

Rhodes said human rights, including women’s rights, would be on the agenda for Obama’s meetings. But he said the US has a broad range of security interests with Saudi Arabia that would be most prominent on the agenda.

“We’ve raised concerns around human rights issues, issues related to women’s rights,” Rhodes said, adding that the U.S. has to maintain “the ability to cooperate” with the Saudis on other issues.

The Saudi anxieties have been building over time, according to Simon Henderson, a fellow at The Washington Institute, a think tank focused on Middle East policy.

“Ever since Washington withdrew support for President (Hosni) Mubarak of Egypt in 2011, Abdullah and other Gulf leaders have worried about the reliability of Washington’s posture toward even longstanding allies,” Henderson wrote this week. “President Obama’s U-turn on military action against Syria over its use of chemical weapons last summer only added to the concern, which has likely morphed into exasperation after recent events in Crimea, where the Saudis judge that President Obama was outmaneuvered by Vladimir Putin.”

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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Iran, Saudi Arabia Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. DVult says

    Mar 28, 2014 at 6:04 pm

    Is Dumbo going to bring up the fact that the Saudi and US backed “rebels” are committing war crimes on an everyday basis? Is he going to ask the so called king to help in opposing the murderous hostility of sunni muslims towards Christians and other non-muslims?

  2. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Mar 28, 2014 at 6:12 pm

    More turnspeak from Obama. But that kinda talk is very risky in dealing with Moslems, as has been demonstrated repeatedly. Obama *will* accept a bad deal with Iran, and there will be hell to pay down the road. With this guy, it’s all about winning the next election, always that is the top priority. He’s a serial campaigner cuz he’s buying time to complete the conversion of the U.S. to socialism, and if possible globalism. He’s well into the process of destroying the nation’s healthcare system, and he lied to win two election cycles to keep the scam going. But Moslems don’t give a rat’s ass about elections, except where fake ones are required to get money from the Infidels.

  3. Tatter says

    Mar 28, 2014 at 6:48 pm

    Did Obama bow to the Saudi king this time around?

  4. Rob says

    Mar 28, 2014 at 6:56 pm

    POTUS should persuade KSA to open the flood gates and force the world oil price down.
    That would ruin the Russian economy and get Putin off his new Russian Empire ideas.

  5. Wellington says

    Mar 28, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    Sadly, even tragically, for what’s left of the free world the smarter guy in this photo is sitting on the right.

  6. RonaldB says

    Mar 28, 2014 at 9:16 pm

    I still don’t see where it’s remotely in US interests to destabilize Syria or arm the rebels. Syria is an ally of Iran and was an active enemy of Israel, but replacing the relatively stable Syrian government with anarchy and a jihad breeding ground does nothing for US security.

    I don’t even see the benefits to a Muslim sympathizer like Obama in supporting the Syrian rebellion.

    I can kind of see the benefits to Saudi Arabia. They see Iran as their worst enemy, and the Syrian government as a firm Iranian ally. The Syrian rebels are mainly Sunni, and likely to be sympathetic to Iranian interests and hostile to Shi’ites. Furthermore, the Christian population of Syria will be completely decimated, which is probably attractive to the Saudis, who can’t stand the presence of any religion except Sunni Islam.

    I don’t understand why the US Congress tolerates US activity in Syria. Hasn’t anyone asked whether such actives are in the US interest? We know the deep penetration of Saudi money and intelligence in the US government, in conjunction with the Muslim Brotherhood, a very Sunni organization. I’d hate to think the US government and Congress is so responsive to Saudi money and espionage, but that seems to be the most likely conclusion.

    • umbra says

      Mar 28, 2014 at 11:47 pm

      It is not in US interest to have an unstable syria, but it appears to be in obama’s (and some members of congress) interest, for whatever reason (money, oil, ideology).

      saudi arabia (and other gulf states) is simply doing what it has done in the past, contracting the US and other western countries to “resolve” it’s regional issues. Gulf states funded saddam’s army during the iran-Iraq war. When saddam turned against kuwait, GF1 erupted. Western countries did the bulk of the fighting, even though it was essentially local conflict. Evidently, the combined forces of the rest of the Arab world plus turkey appeared not to be able to overcome Iraqi forces. In GF2, western countries, again, got rid of another thorn-in-the-side issue for saudi arabia – the removal of saddam, permanently. Naturally, iraq did not turn out the way saudi arabia had hoped. An iraq that is very friendly to iran is not something that was envisaged. To counter this, a syria that is not so friendly to iran would have to be manufactured. That has not turned out so well either.

      With a US no show (non military intervention) in syria and obama snuggling up to iran, saudis are seriously worried. Their foremost military contractor, the US, is not very responsive to them, presently.

      • umbra says

        Mar 29, 2014 at 2:29 am

        GF1 and GF2 should read GW1 and GW2 respectively.

  7. Craig Williams says

    Mar 28, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    “He who fails to learn from history is doomed to repeat it.” We unfortunately are saddled with a president whose mindset/attitude toward America is straight out off the 60’s. Simply put America has been a force of oppression and evil in the world. I suppose to a communist, socialist, liberal, progressive, that is acceptable. All one need do is listen to the hatefull, bitter, rants that pass for “sermons” of Obama’s pastor of several years that of course being Jeremiah Wright. Understand who the potus kept company with in past decades to see how he views this country. The fundamental transformation, the hope and change that Obama spoke of during the 2008 campaign are made obvious to any rational person. Obama’s destabilising of our economy, his shrinking and weaking of our military among other things is the setting of the stage, the arrainging of the chess board for what is to follow. And, what is to follow is not going to be pretty. We had better open our eyes. We had better wake up. WE HAD BETTER STAND UP AND BE COUNTED!!! If we love our country.

  8. varmaghfgh says

    Mar 29, 2014 at 9:07 am

    I love This Post great info thank u
    hacks and cracks

  9. duh_swami says

    Mar 29, 2014 at 10:24 am

    That’s a modern version of Laurel and Hardy. The big guy says to the little guy, ‘You see that policemen standing over there ? You go right over there and kick him square in the rear, and if he says anything about it, send him over here to me’…

  10. Alarmed Pig Farmer says

    Mar 29, 2014 at 11:24 am

    Back when communism was the world’s biggest problem and most immediate threat, there sprang up university departments and think tanks to work on the problem. The cohort of Sovietologists was big and diverse.

    Now Islam (Moslems) is the world’s biggest problem and most immediate threat, and what to we have. Well, there’s Spencer and Geller, laboring in the wild with a smattering of support, Steyn – who can’t resist the idiocy Islam, Bostom – who can’t stand the lies, and then a couple of dozen security analysts who are willing to acknowledge Islam as a factor in the explosive growth of Jihad violence, but unwilling to consider whether that’s systemic or exceptive.

    The truth-about-Islam cadre is tiny and waaay underfunded in comparison to the Sovietologists of yore. The difference? The government recognized Russia and China as immediate threats; the government does not now, or ever has, singled out Moslems and a dangerous group to be as a problem, and immediate one to be overcome at all costs.

    We need a Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine for dealing with the Moslems, and can obtain that only by changing what seems mad today as common sensicle.

  11. ApolloSpeaks says

    Mar 29, 2014 at 11:35 am

    AFTER FAILING TO PROVOKE WAR OVER CHEMICAL WEAPONS TURKEY HATCH’S FALSE FLAG PLOT TO DRAW NATO INTO WAR WITH SYRIA

    Click my name for the article

    • ApolloSpeaks says

      Mar 29, 2014 at 1:46 pm

      ….HATCHES PLAN

  12. tpellow says

    Mar 30, 2014 at 9:50 am

    “The US is paying the cost of supporting the House of Saud as cracks begin to appear”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/the-us-is-paying-the-cost-of-supporting-the-house-of-saud-as-cracks-begin-to-appear-9223659.html

  13. gravenimage says

    Apr 1, 2014 at 10:20 pm

    Obama to Saudis: We will not accept a bad Iran deal
    …………………………..

    Grimly laughable…

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