US President Donald Trump poses for photos with King Salman and others at the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photo / AP
US President Donald Trump poses for photos with King Salman and others at the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photo / AP
Former US President Barack Obama made four visits to Saudi Arabia; in June 2009, March 2014, January 2015 and April 2016.
Today President Donald Trump delivered a 36 minute address in Riyadh; his first speech of his first foreign trip.
Both visits marked the chance to make their views onSaudi Arabia and the wider Arab world very clear, the Daily Telegraph reports.
But it's important to note that both Obama and Trump moderated their campaign trail views once they entered the White House.
In Las Vegas, during a debate with Hillary Clinton on October 20, 2016, Trump said: "These are people that push gays off business - off buildings. These are people that kill women and treat women horribly."
Equally, Obama found his rhetoric changing as president.
In Chicago, on October 2, 2002, Obama said: "Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells."
Obama never lost his scepticism about Saudi Arabia - but he did not refer to them again as a "so-called ally".
Obama, April 2016 interview with the Atlantic, which infuriated the Saudis: "The competition between the Saudis and the Iranians - which has helped to feed proxy wars and chaos in Syria and Iraq and Yemen - requires us to say to our friends as well as to the Iranians that they need to find an effective way to share the neighbourhood and institute some sort of cold peace."
Obama, Riyadh speech, April 2016: "We welcome an Iran that plays a responsible role in the region - one that takes concrete, practical steps to build trust and resolve its differences with its neighbours by peaceful means and abides by international rules and norms."
Obama, Riyadh press conference, April 2016: "Even as Iran is calling us 'The Great Satan,' we were able to get a deal done where they got rid of their nuclear stockpiles, and that makes us safer. That's not a sign of weakness, that's a sign of strength."
Trump, May 2017: "For decades, Iran has fuelled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror. It is a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this room."
Trump, May 2017: "Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace, all nations of conscience must work together to isolate Iran, deny it funding for terrorism, and pray for the day when the Iranian people have the just and righteous government they deserve."
Human rights in Saudi Arabia
Obama, Riyadh speech, April 2016: "Even as these summits focus on security issues, it remains the case that true and lasting security also depends on governance and an economy that serves all its citizens and respects universal human rights."
Trump, May 2017: "Our partnerships will advance security through stability, not through radical disruption. We will make decisions based on real-world outcomes - not inflexible ideology. We will be guided by the lessons of experience, not the confines of rigid thinking. And, wherever possible, we will seek gradual reforms - not sudden intervention."
Obama, Washington address in May 2011: Arab societies "held together by fear and repression may offer the illusion of stability for a time, but they are built upon fault lines that will eventually tear asunder."
Trump, May 2017: "We are not here to lecture - we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership - based on shared interests and values - to pursue a better future for us all."
In this January 2015 file photo, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama stand with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz in Riyadh. Photo / AP
Co-operation
Obama, Riyadh press conference, April 2016: "I think that a lot of the strain was always overblown. The fact of the matter is, is that the friendship and cooperation that exist between the United States and the Gulf countries has been consistent for decades."
"Aren't the Saudis your friends?," asked Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at in a November 2015 APEC summit in Manila. Obama smiled. "It's complicated," he said.
Obama, Riyadh press conference, April 2016: "What is true between the United States and the GCC, as is true with all of our allies and friends, is that at any point in time, there are going to be differences in tactics."
Trump, May 2017: "Today we begin a new chapter that will bring lasting benefits to our citizens."
Syria
Obama, Riyadh speech, April 2016: "This violence (in Syria) is yet another reminder that there's only one way to end this civil war, as our GCC partners agree - a transitional governing body, a new constitution with free elections, including a transition away from Assad."
Trump, May 2017: "Responsible nations must work together to end the humanitarian crisis in Syria, eradicate Isis, and restore stability to the region."
Obama, in the Atlantic interview in April 2016: "An approach that said to our friends 'You are right, Iran is the source of all problems, and we will support you in dealing with Iran' would essentially mean that as these sectarian conflicts continue to rage and our Gulf partners, our traditional friends, do not have the ability to put out the flames on their own or decisively win on their own, and would mean that we have to start coming in and using our military power to settle scores. And that would be in the interest neither of the United States nor of the Middle East."
Trump, May 2017: "We can only overcome this evil if the forces of good are united and strong - and if everyone in this room does their fair share and fulfills their part of the burden."
Trump, May 2017: "The nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them. The nations of the Middle East will have to decide what kind of future they want for themselves, for their countries, and for their children."
