New Delhi: The officials of White House on Tuesday announced that President Barack Obama will flies to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to offer his condolences on the death of King Abdullah.
Republican opponent from 2008 Sen. John McClain of Arizona, and several veterans of the past Republican administrations, including former secretaries of state, James A. Baker III and Condoleezza Rice and two former national security advisers, Brent Scowcroft and Stephen J. Hadley will joining the President.
Also meeting up with Obama in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, will be senior figures from his own administration, including Secretary of State John Kerry; John O. Brennan, the director of the CIA; and Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, the head of the U.S. Central Command, the military unit that oversees Middle East operations.
Several Democratic members of Congress would be part of the delegation as well, including some who were already traveling with the president as part of his three-day visit to India, which ends on Tuesday, said White House officials.
Those to join him for the trip to Riyadh include Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia and Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Ami Bera of California and Eliot Engel and Joseph Crowley of New York, it added.
Obama plans to meet with his successor, King Salman in addition to pay respects to the family of Abdullah, who died Friday.
Obama is scheduled to spend only four hours on the ground in Riyadh, long enough for a meeting and a dinner at a palace, before heading back to Washington.
But the fact that he decided to go sent a message, since he rarely makes overseas trips when a country’s current or former leader dies. One of the few exceptions was the 2013 memorial to Nelson Mandela, the late South African president.
Bureau Report
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