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US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in the Saudi capital on Wednesday for talks with King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz on coping with the political upheaval sweeping the Arab world, blunting Iranian efforts to exploit the unrest, and upgrading the kingdom's defences against Iranian missiles.
In a sign of the depth of the Obama administration's concern about the political earthquake that has shaken the region, this was Gates' third trip to the area in the past month.
He has echoed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's cautioning of authoritarian Arab governments on the risks of moving too slowly in response to peaceful protests for political freedom.
A senior defence official travelling with Gates from Washington said the kingdom's internal political situation was unlikely to be broached in Gates' talks with Abdullah. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss Gates' thinking in advance of his closed-door meeting with the king.
The official said Gates would assure Abdullah that the $60 billion (Dh220.34 billion) arms deal is progressing on schedule, while also urging the king to buy an upgraded version of its US-made Patriot air defence missiles.
Gates also planned to pitch a more sophisticated US defence system called the Theater High-Altitude Area Defence system, which is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles of longer range. It is part of a broader US plan to improve Gulf Arab states' defences against Iranian missile threats.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters on Gates' flight to Riyadh that Iran would be a major focus of Gates' talks with Abdullah — not just its missile development, but also its nuclear weapons ambitions and concerns that Iran is seeking to exploit political upheaval in the Arab world.
‘Clear message'
"Saudis believe their concerns in Bahrain — containing Iran, protecting Gulf monarchies and sending a clear message to their own Shiite population — are best addressed by a hardline policy of suppressing the protests," Marina Ottaway, director of the Middle East programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in an analysis on Monday.
On March 14 — two days after Gates visited Bahrain's rulers — the Saudis sent more than 1,000 troops into Bahrain, at that government's request, for security assistance. Ottaway concluded from Washington's muted response that it has chosen to implicitly back the Saudis.
"Washington has seemingly accepted that for the time being the Saudis have won the battle for influence in Bahrain and concluded that mending relations with Saudi Arabia should take precedence right now
In a sign of the depth of the Obama administration's concern about the political earthquake that has shaken the region, this was Gates' third trip to the area in the past month.
He has echoed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's cautioning of authoritarian Arab governments on the risks of moving too slowly in response to peaceful protests for political freedom.
A senior defence official travelling with Gates from Washington said the kingdom's internal political situation was unlikely to be broached in Gates' talks with Abdullah. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss Gates' thinking in advance of his closed-door meeting with the king.
The official said Gates would assure Abdullah that the $60 billion (Dh220.34 billion) arms deal is progressing on schedule, while also urging the king to buy an upgraded version of its US-made Patriot air defence missiles.
Gates also planned to pitch a more sophisticated US defence system called the Theater High-Altitude Area Defence system, which is designed to shoot down ballistic missiles of longer range. It is part of a broader US plan to improve Gulf Arab states' defences against Iranian missile threats.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters on Gates' flight to Riyadh that Iran would be a major focus of Gates' talks with Abdullah — not just its missile development, but also its nuclear weapons ambitions and concerns that Iran is seeking to exploit political upheaval in the Arab world.
‘Clear message'
"Saudis believe their concerns in Bahrain — containing Iran, protecting Gulf monarchies and sending a clear message to their own Shiite population — are best addressed by a hardline policy of suppressing the protests," Marina Ottaway, director of the Middle East programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in an analysis on Monday.
On March 14 — two days after Gates visited Bahrain's rulers — the Saudis sent more than 1,000 troops into Bahrain, at that government's request, for security assistance. Ottaway concluded from Washington's muted response that it has chosen to implicitly back the Saudis.
"Washington has seemingly accepted that for the time being the Saudis have won the battle for influence in Bahrain and concluded that mending relations with Saudi Arabia should take precedence right now
