Saudi-US relations: from mutual affection to marriage of convenience

The last time US President Barack Obama met King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz in Saudi Arabia, he was on his way to Cairo to deliver the ‘A new beginning’ speech which was supposed to herald a new chapter in the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world, following the bitterness left by George W Bush. Obama spent the night of 3 June 2009 at King Abdullah’s ranch outside Riyadh, and the two men spent several hours in a private meeting intended to “underscore [their] shared interests in the region”, so the White House said at the time.