Obama in Saudi Arabia for talks overshadowed by mistrust

RIYADH: US President Barack Obama arrived Friday in Riyadh for talks with Saudi King Abdullah as mistrust fuelled by differences over Iran and Syria overshadows a decades-long alliance between their countries.
Obama arrived in the Saudi capital from Italy, and is expected to hold evening talks with the monarch on a royal estate outside Riyadh.
Saudi Arabia has strong reservations about efforts by Washington and other major world powers to negotiate a deal with Iran on its nuclear programme.
It is also disappointed over Obama's 11th-hour decision last year not to take military action against the Syrian regime over chemical weapons attacks.
Saudi analyst Abdel Aziz al-Sagr, who heads the Gulf Research Centre, said Saudi-US relations are "tense due to Washington's stances" on the Middle East, especially Iran.
The recent rapprochement between Tehran and Washington "must not take place at the expense of relations with Riyadh," Sagr told AFP.