Obama and Kerry are playing it both ways: Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Saudi Arabia Sunday hoping to repair ties with Americas longstanding ally, which have frayed over the Syrian conflict and US outreach to Iran. The top US diplomat was already on the second stop of an 11-day trip which has become an exercise in damage control, as the regional turbulence unleashed by the Arab Spring stirs tensions with longtime US partners. Saudi Arabia, locked in a decades-long rivalry with Iran, is concerned that proposed Syrian peace talks could leave a Tehran-backed regime in Damascus and that a breakthrough in nuclear negotiations could lead to a US rapprochement with Iran. The conservative oil-rich kingdom has grown increasingly nervous over the past two years as popular revolts have toppled onetime allies in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen and spread turmoil across the region. In an unprecedented move last month, Saudi turned down a coveted non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council in protest at the world bodys failure to end the war in Syria, which has left over 120,000 people dead. Earlier Sunday in Cairo, Kerry acknowledged that while there might be differences over tactics in ending the Syrian conflict, the end goal for the United States and its allies was the same -- a transition of power.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 02:49:25 +0000
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