Obama faces rights criticism after Saudi visit focused on ties

US President Barack Obama flew home from Saudi Arabia today under fire for not doing more to raise human rights concerns on a visit dominated by smoothing policy differences with a longtime ally.
Obama met a campaigner for the rights of women in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom before leaving today morning.
But despite appeals from US lawmakers, he did not raise any rights issues in his talks with King Abdullah late yesterday, which were dominated by policy on Iran and Syria, a source of friction between the allies, a senior US official said.
The official insisted that did not mean Obama did not share "significant concerns," merely that the conflict in Syria and Riyadh's concerns about Washington's diplomatic engagement with Tehran had left no time to discuss them.

"We do have a lot of significant concerns about the human rights situation that have been ongoing with respect to women's rights, with respect to religious freedom, with respect to free and open dialogue," the official said.
But "given the extent of time that they spent on Iran and Syria, they didn't get to a number of issues and it wasn't just human rights."

Saudi Arabia has strong reservations about efforts by Washington and other major powers to negotiate a deal with Iran on its controversial nuclear programme.
The Sunni Muslim oil kingpin, long wary of Shiite Iran's regional ambitions, views a November deal between the powers and Iran aimed at buying time to negotiate a comprehensive accord as a risky venture that could embolden Tehran.

Riyadh -- a staunch supporter of the Syrian rebels -- was also deeply disappointed by Obama's 11th-hour decision last year not to take military action against Tehran ally Damascus over chemical weapons attacks.
Obama sought to reassure Abdullah on both issues in yesterday's meeting, telling the king that the strategic interests of the United States and its longtime ally remained "very much aligned", the US official said.