Obama hopes military aid eases rifts
RIYADH • President Barack Obama promised Gulf Arab allies weapons and support Thursday to counter Iranian influence in the region even as he pushed them to be open to dialogue and diplomacy with their longtime rival.
Obama met with envoys from the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council — a bloc stretching from Kuwait to Oman — as part of deeper outreach to Saudi Arabia and its regional partners amid rare rifts opened by last year’s nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.
Speaking to reporters, the president said the United States and its Arab partners are working to have “institutionalized communication at every level of government” to ease unintended friction in a region that remains “fraught” with political strife.
“The possibility of misunderstandings increases when there’s so much activity taking place,” he said, adding that they are working to ensure “we have knowledge (of) what each party is doing on an ongoing basis.”
At the core of Obama’s strategy is a two-part bet: that helping shore up the Arab allies’ defences also will raise prospects for their diplomatic overtures with Tehran.
The meetings in Riyadh followed a similar gathering in May at Camp David in which the strains between the president and the Arab allies were obvious. King Salman of Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf leaders skipped those talks.
In his statement at the conclusion of the latest summit, Obama emphasized that the two sides have much in common, especially when it comes to countering the rise of militants such as ISIL.
He resolved “to de-escalate and resolve regional conflicts” even as they continued “to have serious concerns about Iranian behaviour” in the Middle East.
“We remain united in our fight to destroy ISIL, which is a threat to all of us,” he said.
King Salman called the summit “constructive and fruitful.”
But serious fissures remain between the administration and Gulf governments on how to pursue shared objectives. Saudi Arabia and other Western allies in the region back rebel factions opposing President Bashar Assad. In Yemen, however, a Saudi-led force has waged airstrikes against rebel groups — which some say are backed by Iran — in hopes of restoring the ousted government.
“There’s broad agreement on where we want to go on the region,” deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters before Obama spoke, citing the need for a peace deal in Yemen and a political transition in Syria that would remove Assad from power.
Rhodes portrayed the friction over the nuclear accord with Iran as largely “tactical differences on what we are emphasizing.”
Much of the president’s message in Saudi Arabia has been focused on reassuring the Sunni Arab allies that the United States is not pivoting toward a closer relationship with Shiite power Iran.
“We certainly understand this is their neighbourhood and they are worried about Iran,” Rhodes said. But Obama emphasized that those concerns should not block chances for wider diplomatic engagement.
“Deep down, this conflict, particularly between Saudi Arabia and Iran, fuels chaos, sectarianism and instability in the region, all of which helps (the Islamic State) and other terrorist groups,” Rob Malley, a senior adviser to the president on the Middle East, told reporters last week.
The Gulf Co-operation Council includes Saudi Ara- bia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — nations that have some key U.S. military sites such as the 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.
“That’s a very important reason why we believe that these regional conflicts that often have a sectarian tinge need to be de-escalated,” Malley added.
As a result of this week’s summit, the two sides also have agreed to establish a joint economic dialogue aimed at helping Gulf Arab residents adjust to lower oil prices, Obama said.