{"id":86480,"date":"2015-01-28T09:19:11","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T09:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=86480"},"modified":"2015-01-28T09:19:11","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T09:19:11","slug":"obama-visits-new-saudi-king-salman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=86480","title":{"rendered":"Obama visits new Saudi King Salman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\" class=\"introduction\">US President Barack Obama has led a large, bipartisan US delegation to Saudi Arabia following the death of King Abdullah.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Obama cut short a trip to India to make time for the brief visit, during which he met new ruler King Salman.<\/p>\n<p>He was accompanied by prominent Republican officials, including former Secretaries of State James Baker and Condoleezza Rice.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia is a key US ally in a region riven by war and rivalries.<\/p>\n<p>President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama were met at the airport in Riyadh by King Salman and then driven to Erga Palace, the king&#8217;s private residence, for dinner.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Obama and King Salman held an hour-long meeting in which they discussed a range of issues including the campaign against Islamic State (IS), US officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia is among the US-led coalition of Western and Arab nations conducting air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>But relations between Washington and Riyadh have been strained by differences over US policy on the Syrian conflict and its nuclear diplomacy with Shia power Iran &#8211; a regional rival of Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The two leaders also discussed the security situation in Yemen as well as stability in the global oil market.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Obama stressed the importance of human rights, US officials added, but did not raise the case of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison last May for &#8220;insulting Islam through electronic channels&#8221; and &#8220;going beyond the realm of obedience&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/80566000\/jpg\/_80566038_025617197.jpg\" alt=\"President Obama and King Salman in Riyadh. 27 Jan 2015\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">President Obama and King Salman discussed a range of issues including the fight against IS<\/div>\n<p>The sentence provoked an international outcry.<\/p>\n<p>Before his arrival Mr Obama had said one of the main reasons for the visit was to pay respects to the late King Abdullah &#8220;who in his own fashion presented some modest reform efforts within the kingdom&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Obama had been due to visit the Taj Mahal in India on Tuesday, but had to cancel to allow for the four-hour visit to Riyadh.<\/p>\n<p>Also among the 30-strong US delegation were CIA director John Brennan, John McCain, the Republican chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, and Republican former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US President Barack Obama has led a large, bipartisan US delegation to Saudi Arabia following the death of King Abdullah. Mr Obama cut short a trip to India to make time for the brief visit, during which he met new ruler King Salman. He was accompanied by prominent Republican officials, including former Secretaries of State [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-86480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}