Well, Pres. Obama has come and gone from Saudi Arabia. He’s also delivered his speech in Cairo (the subject of a separate post).

His meetings with King Abdullah at the latter’s farm outside Riyadh were closed. General discussions, held in the company of the Secretary of State, the Saudi Foreign Minister, and other officials are summarized as to topics in media reporting. What was said during the two-hour private meeting between the President and the King, however, goes unreported. The substance will likely leak out in drips and drabs over the next few months, but for now, only the participants know what was said.

Consequently, we really don’t know a whole lot more after the meetings than we did before. I’d certainly be interested in learning more, but I’m going to have to wait along with everyone else. Until then, we’re left with the anodyne:

Obama seeks closer Saudi ties
Ghazanfar Ali Khan | Arab News

RIYADH: Talks between Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and US President Barack Obama here yesterday focused on joint efforts, closer coordination and more Saudi support to revive the Middle East peace process while many other regional and international issues were also taken up for discussion by the two leaders. Some of them included the nuclear standoff with Iran, oil and global energy market as well as US relations with the Muslim world.

“I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek His Majesty King Abdullah’s counsel,” Obama said before the talks.

The US president said he was confident that, working together, the United States and Saudi Arabia could make progress on a host of issues for the benefit of the two countries.
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