Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia to spend an evening in the country, attempting to mend ties with the kingdom Friday, The Guardian reports.
This very brief visit to Riyadh will be seen as a gesture from President Obama to heal a broken alliance that has increasingly soured since the U.S. reached out to Iran for peace talks.
Saudi Arabia is America’s biggest ally in the Middle East but the diplomatic relationship between both countries has taken a dramatic fall due to Washington’s response to the Arab Spring.
Syria has also been in the center of tensions as Saudi leaders widely anticipated a military campaign headed by the U.S. to oust the Shia-led government, while Iran firmly backed the Assad regime.
Despite the stale atmosphere, Saudi Arabia remains the one of the biggest buyers of U.S. weapons – a topic that is likely to be on the table during talks, according to The Guardian.
