Saudis voice optimism about relations with US under Trump

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister says his country expects to have a productive relationship with the Trump administration and is optimistic that US-Saudi cooperation can overcome challenges in the Middle East.
"We look forward to working with the Trump administration on all issues," Jubeir said. "We are very very optimistic about our ability to resolve issues in the region."
Jubeir made the comments today at the top of a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who is on his first overseas trip as America's top diplomat.
Jubeir did not elaborate but Saudi Arabia has deep concerns about Iran's increasing assertiveness in the region and he and Tillerson were to attend larger meetings on the crises in Yemen and Syria on the sidelines of a gathering of foreign ministers from the Group of 20 world powers in nearby Bonn.

In a meeting on Yemen with Jubeir and the foreign ministers of Britain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, Tillerson did not respond to a reporter's question about the Trump administration's proposed travel ban for citizens of seven mainly Muslim nations.
Indeed, he made no substantive remarks in the presence of reporters, limiting his comments with to polite chatter about his past business travel experience as CEO of Exxon Mobil.

He will face a blizzard of questions about the US administration's foreign policy from nervous Asian and European allies. And there will be penetrating inquiries from America's watchful rivals like Russia and China, who will be eager to seize on any miscues or gaffes for their own advantage.

Tillerson also will be playing defense amid the chaos and turmoil caused by the firing of national security adviser Michael Flynn for misleading officials about his contacts with Russia.
In Bonn, the Cold War capital of the former West Germany, he will come face-to-face later Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a seasoned and wily diplomat who sparred, often successfully, with past US secretaries of state.
President Donald Trump chose Tillerson for the job in part because of his business experience and relationship with Russia while he was at Mobil.
His meeting with Lavrov will be a first test of whether that business acumen which led to great profits for Exxon and Russian President Vladimir Putin bestowing a friendship award upon him can translate into success in a high-stakes diplomatic arena.