Obama seeks to allay Saudi fears on Iran, Syria

US President Barack Obama sought to allay Riyadh's criticism of his policies on Syria and Iran, telling the Saudi king their two countries remain in lockstep on strategic interests.
He also assured King Abdullah that the US "won't accept a bad deal" with Iran, as global powers negotiate a treaty reining in Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.
Obama arrived from Italy to meet for some two hours with the monarch of the oil-rich kingdom on a royal estate outside Riyadh on the last leg of a six-day tour.
The US president told the king that "he believes that our strategic interests remain very much aligned" with those of Saudi Arabia, a senior US administration official told reporters.

Earlier, White House officials said discussions would focus on ways to "empower" Syria's moderate opposition.
"One of the main topics of conversation" would be "how do we best empower the moderate opposition inside of Syria politically, militarily as a counterweight to (President Bashar) Assad," deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes told reporters on board Air Force One.

Rhodes also said US-Saudi ties have been improving thanks to cooperation on ways to support Syria's opposition.
"Our relationship with the Saudis is in a stronger place today than it was in the fall (autumn) when we had some tactical differences about our Syria policy," he said.

Saudi Arabia was dismayed by Obama's 11th-hour decision last year not to carry out military strikes against the Syrian regime over chemical weapons attacks.
But officials shot down as untrue reports that the US administration was planning to give Riyadh a green light to ship heavy weapons, known as MANPADs, to the beleaguered moderate Syrian opposition.
"We have not changed our position on providing MANPADS to the opposition," a second senior administration official said, acknowledging "this is a proliferation risk".
"This wasn't a focus of the meeting," he insisted.
Riyadh also has strong reservations about revived efforts by Washington and other major world powers to negotiate with Iran.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, long wary of Shiite Iran's regional ambitions, views a November deal between world powers and Iran on its nuclear programme as a risky venture that could embolden Tehran.