Saudi king Abdullah visited Syria. Abdullah rarely leaves his country, as it is customary for other Arab rulers to visit him.
Relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria have been strained for the last few years, as Abdullah resents Syrian help to Shiite radicals in Lebanon.
It may be that Abdullah is trying to pry Assad away from Iran, into the American embrace. It is no less likely that Assad is mediating between near-nuclear Iran and Saudi Arabia, which has come to accept Iran’s nuclear status.
Saudi Arabia has every reason to fear Iranian retaliation for its cooperation with the US against Iran’s nuclear program, such as the kidnapping of Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist making a pilgrimage to Mecca.
