MID: To open a Muslim dialogue, Obama visits Saudi king
03 Jun 2009 10:58 PM
EDS: Takes in Mideast Obama Osama
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Agencies - President Barack Obama began his latest bid to open a dialogue with the Muslim world by paying a call on Wednesday on Saudi King Abdullah, guardian of Islam's sacred sites in Mecca and Medina.
The monarch of Saudi Arabia greeted Obama at Riyadh's main airport with a ceremony when the new US president arrived after an overnight flight from Washington.
A band played "The Star-Spangled Banner." And each leader shook hands with members of his counterpart's entourage.
Perched on ornate chairs behind a flower arrangement, Obama and Abdullah then chatted briefly in public and shook hands, with cameras capturing the scene.
Then, they retreated to hold private talks on a range of issues.
Saudi Arabia is a stopover en route to Cairo, where Obama is to set deliver a speech that he's been promising since last year's election campaign - aiming to set a new tone in America's often-strained dealings with the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia was to swift to react after a new tape from Osama bin Laden accusing visiting US President Barack Obama of "antagonising Muslims".
"It's an act of desperation," information ministry official Nial al-Jubeir told AFP after the tape from the al-Qaeda mastermind was aired on Al-Jazeera television.
"They are still making their statements while hiding in a cave," he said.
The bin Laden tape surfaced shortly after Obama arrived in Riyadh.
He accused Obama of "antagonising Muslims" in the same way as his predecessor George W. Bush, in an audiotape aired on Qatar's Al-Jazeera news channel less than an hour after the president landed in Saudi Arabia.
"He has followed the steps of his predecessor in antagonising Muslims ... and laying the foundation for long wars," bin Laden said, referring to deadly clashes in Pakistan between the US-backed government and Islamist militants.
"Obama and his administration have sowed new seeds of hatred against America," said the al-Qaeda leader whose network carried out the 9/11 attacks
"Let the American people prepare to harvest the crops of what the leaders of the White House plant in the next years and decades."
