Obama meets Saudi King

US President Barack Obama is considering allowing shipments of new air defense systems to the Syrian opposition, a U.S. official said, as Obama sought to reassure Saudi Arabia’s king that the U.S. is not taking too soft a stance in Syria and other Mideast conflicts.

A key U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia would be likely to cheer a decision by Obama to allow the portable missile launchers into Syria. Saudi officials were dismayed when Obama scrapped plans last year to launch a strike against Syrian President Bashar Assad, and they have been pressing the White House on the issue. The Saudis could play a direct role in sending the systems, known as “manpads,” to the rebels fighting Assad’s forces.

Word of Obama’s potential shift came as Obama was paying a visit late last month to Saudi King Abdullah’s desert oasis at the conclusion of a weeklong, four-country trip. The aging monarch has been nervously watching Washington’s negotiations with Iran and other U.S. policy developments in the Middle East.

Obama and the king spent the bulk of their session discussing Iran and Syria, where U.S. and Saudi interests remain aligned despite differences about some tactics, senior administration officials said after the meeting. In a nod to a potential change in the stance on manpads, officials said that in the course of providing assistance to the Syrian opposition, the U.S. has been able to develop deeper relationships that have fostered confidence in the moderate elements.

Despite its decades-long alliance with the United States, Saudi’s royal family has become increasingly anxious in recent years over Obama’s nuclear talks with Iran and his tepid involvement in the Syrian civil war. During Obama’s evening meetings with the king, the president’s task was to reassure Saudi Arabia that the U.S. is not abandoning Arab interests despite troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, greater energy independence back home and nuclear talks with predominantly Persian Iran.