US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Riyadh Wednesday, March 10, flying in unexpectedly from Kabul in Afghanistan, after the Saudis demanded urgent clarifications of the Obama administration’s Iran policy. The demand followed the failure of US Vice President Joe Biden’s talks with Israeli leaders to resolve their differences on Iran.
As a result, two senior US officials are visiting to Middle East capitals at the same to under pressure to deal with the Iranian nuclear question.
Gates was closeted with Saudi rulers although it was as recently as Feb. 15 that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Riyadh and explained Washington’s strategy on Iran to King Abdullah and several senior Saudi princes. But she failed to allay her hosts’ intense concerns that the US was doing enough to abort Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Then on Sunday, March 7, US Centcom Commander Gen. David Petraeus, asked by a CNN interviewer, whether countries in the Persian Gulf wish to see a US military attack on Iran, said: “…there are countries that would like to see a strike, us or perhaps Israel, even…”
In Israel, where the media are obsessed with the slightest Arab or Palestinian utterance, none cited the US general’s comments.
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