U.S. President Barack Obama is seen with Saudi King Salman in Riyadh on Tuesday. Mr. Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, leading a bipartisan delegation of prominent current and former officials, to offer condolences for the death of King Abdullah.STEPHEN CROWLEY/The New York Times
U.S. President Barack Obama pulled out all the stops Tuesday to make a big impression on the rulers of Saudi Arabia.
Cutting short his state visit to India – skipping the requisite tour of the Taj Mahal – Mr. Obama led a hurriedly assembled delegation of 30 senior U.S. officials, past and present, to Riyadh to offer condolences to the new Saudi monarch King Salman, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (as the Saudi King is known), on the passing of his predecessor last week, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.
Mr. Obama, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice were joined by officials from past administrations, including former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice from the George W. Bush administration as well as James Baker, who was chief of staff to Ronald Reagan and secretary of state to George H. W. Bush, and Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Gerald Ford in the mid 1970s.
Republican Senator John McCain was there, as was Democratic Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader. So, too, were security heavyweights John Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and General Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command.
The delegation "meets the threshold of being bipartisan, high-level and people who worked very closely with Saudi Arabia over many years," said Ben Rhodes, Mr. Obama's deputy national security adviser.
What the delegation lacked in time on the ground – a total of just four hours for a royal greeting, dinner and private meeting – it made up for in the number and seniority of participants.
"I believe it is important that we demonstrate to the Saudis the importance that they represent to us," said Mr. Baker, who had been secretary of state during the first Gulf War against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, launched from Saudi Arabia.
"This is an extraordinarily critical and sensitive time in the Middle East when everything seems to be falling apart," Mr. Baker said. "And the kingdom, in some way, is becoming an island of stability."
The mission was intended to demonstrate U.S. willingness to work with the Saudis on restoring stability to the region. But it also was meant to help Mr. Obama put some serious differences behind them.
The late King Abdullah had made no secret of his view that the U.S. leader was wrong to want to see then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak ousted in 2011, when Egyptians took to the streets in popular protest.
To the Saudi ruler, Mr. Mubarak represented stability and a safeguard against the dreaded Muslim Brotherhood coming to power.
To Mr. Obama, Mr. Mubarak was standing in the path of democratic reform. "I don't think this is a genie that you can put back in the bottle," Mr. Obama recalled telling the then-Egyptian leader.
In an interview Tuesday with CNN, the President said he told Mr. Mubarak to "get out in front of reform" and become "the father of Egyptian democracy." But he didn't listen.
Five years ago this week, Mr. Obama and King Abdullah had a heated telephone conversation about the matter. It ended when the infuriated king hung up on the president of the United States – perhaps the only time the president has suffered such an indignity.
Mr. Mubarak wasn't the only cause of tension between the two leaders. As far as Saudi Arabia was concerned, if Mr. Obama was doing too much to help oust Egypt's president, he wasn't doing enough to help get rid of Syria's ruler.
The Saudis had made up their minds a long time ago that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had to go. They saw his regime as an extension of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and they saw the popular uprising in 2011 as a convenient means to organize his removal. The Saudi king ordered the arming of rebels and called on Washington to do the same.
Mr. McCain took to the task enthusiastically, raising public awareness of the rebel cause. Mr. Obama, however, wanted to tread carefully. His advisers cautioned that what might come after Mr. al-Assad could be far worse.
Indeed, the Saudi enthusiasm for religious rebels would lead to the creation of the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and to the powerful Islamic State movement.
The former Saudi monarch had also expressed his displeasure, also, at the growing influence Iran was having in Iraq – a result, the Saudis said, of U.S. policies that promoted Shiites in the post-Saddam Hussein regime.
He also made it clear that any deal the United States were to make with Iran on its nuclear capabilities would, by definition, be a bad deal. In this matter, the Saudis are in step with the Israelis, determined to prevent any chance of Iran developing nuclear weapons.
For his part, Mr. Obama asks both countries to judge the matter if and when his efforts conclude.
Like Israel, the Saudis also like to wield their influence in the U.S. Congress, getting members of the House and Senate to pressure the White House into holding firm and to pass further punishing economic sanctions against Tehran.
Mr. McCain, a Republican who chairs the Senate armed services committee, supports the kingdom's efforts.
"Saudi Arabia is emerging as the major bulwark against Iranian expansion," Mr. McCain said, adding that Iran was trying to expand its influence in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
"There is no doubt that the Iranians are on the move."
The 30-member U.S. delegation to Saudi Arabia
Barack Obama, President
Joseph W. Westphal, Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
John Kerry, Secretary of State
John McCain, Senator from Arizona (R)
Mark Warner, Senator from Virginia (D)
Nancy Pelosi, Representative from California (D)
Eliot Engel, Representative from New York State (D)
Dr. Ami Bera, Representative from California (D)
Joseph Crowley, Representative from New York State (D)
Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser and assistant to the President for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement
Susan Rice, assistant to the President and National Security Adviser
John Podesta, counselor to the President
Anita Breckenridge, assistant to the President and deputy chief of staff for operations
Tina Tchen, assistant to the President and chief of staff to the first lady
Jennifer Palmieri, assistant to the President and director of communications
Benjamin Rhodes, assistant to the President and deputy National Security Adviser for strategic communications and speechwriting
Lisa Monaco, assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism
Josh Earnest, assistant to the President and press secretary
Chase Cushman, assistant to the President and director of scheduling and advance
Peter A. Selfridge, chief of protocol
John Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency
Melissa Winter, deputy assistant to the President and deputy chief of staff to the first lady
General Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of U.S. Central Command
James Baker, former secretary of state under president George H. W. Bush
Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state under president George W. Bush
Brian Deese, former deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Barack Obama
Brent Scowcroft, former national security advisor under presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush
Sandy Berger, former national security adviser under president Bill Clinton
Stephen Hadley, former national security adviser under president George W. Bush
Frances Fragos Townsend, former assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism under president George W. Bush
Sorted by the White House in order of precedence