An anti-terrorism march in Paris honoring victims of the Charlie Hebdo attacks didn’t register at the White House as something to scramble President Barack Obama’s or Vice President Joe Biden’s schedule to attend. Last week’s royal succession in Saudi Arabia got the opposite treatment: White House aides upended plans for both to show as much respect to the new Saudi king as they could.

The difference between the Riyadh and Paris decisions, White House aides explained Saturday, was that they knew in advance that the condolence call for King Abdullah would draw global leaders. By contrast, aides were taken by surprise when 44 heads of state turned up to lock arms amid “Je Suis Charlie” placards on just two days’ notice — so surprised that they were forced to apologize.


It may seem unseemly to some that Obama is rushing to pay his respects to a feudal monarchy while failing to honor innocent victims of terrorism. But there’s more at stake in this visit than appearances.

U.S. officials are eager to establish a working relationship with the new Saudi king as soon as possible amid unrest that threatens both countries: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has beheaded Americans and controls large amounts of territory in neighboring Syria. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has resurged in another Saudi neighbor, Yemen, as rival militias have seized the country’s capital and deposed the U.S.-friendly president. And with his administration deep in nuclear negotiations with Iran, Obama needs to reassure Saudi leaders uneasy over the United States’ rapprochement with its geopolitical and religious rival.

King Abdullah’s funeral was Friday, and Biden’s office swiftly announced that he’d lead the American delegation to pay respects during the traditional Saudi mourning period on Tuesday. But late Friday, as White House aides made final arrangements for Obama’s departure for India, they started reworking the plans to add Riyadh — apparently to avoid the optics of the president flying past Saudi Arabia as other leaders converged. Instead, Obama and the first lady will cut short their three-day visit to India, canceling a side trip to see the Taj Mahal, to depart for Saudi Arabia. They’re expected to be on the ground for just a few hours.

Another reason Obama replaced Biden was logistics: The White House avoids having Obama and Biden out of the country simultaneously.

“We determined that the window when the vice president would be on the ground in Riyadh coincided with the president’s departure from India,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, announcing the change-up early Saturday.

They have come close to doing that in the past. In March 2013, Biden was returning from Pope Francis’ installation in Rome as Obama was departing for a long scheduled trip to Israel. Both schedules got pushed so there was about only 20 minutes between Air Force One taking off and Air Force Two landing. Earnest was adamant that posed no question about who was in charge of the country: “The fact remains that President Obama is president of the United States everywhere he goes. Vice President Biden is vice president of the United States everywhere he goes.”

Security was also a key difference between a trip to Paris or a trip to Riyadh. Attending the Paris march would have required putting Obama in the open-air event in a way that the Secret Service never likes. By contrast, Obama will visit the new monarch, King Salman, in a closed room of a remote and secure palace. But perhaps the most important factor was that Obama was already going to be near the Middle East. The criticism for skipping Paris, aides insist, was not a driving factor.

Obama’s last trip to Riyadh took place last March following a week of meetings in Europe with NATO allies and a visit to Pope Francis. It was not only a courtesy call; there was also a sense that Abdullah was fading, and Obama went in part to say farewell.

“The closeness and strength of the partnership between our two countries is part of Abdullah’s legacy,” Obama said in a statement last week.

The U.S.-Saudi relationship has been strained under Obama, particularly after the president chose not to strike Syria for its use of chemical weapons against civilians in 2013 — leaving Saudi leaders doubting Obama’s resolve and his commitment to Middle East security.

The relationship has since improved, thanks to close cooperation between the countries against ISIL. But the Obama administration remains conflicted about the desert kingdom. On the one hand, the Saudis provide crucial counterterrorism assistance and have managed to preserve stability at home despite the Arab Spring’s regional upheavals. Their vast oil reserves also give them huge and sometimes very helpful influence over global energy markets: The kingdom’s willingness to keep pumping crude amid falling oil prices has hammered the oil-dependent economies of Russia and Iran, much to Washington’s delight. But the Saudi government is also politically repressive and often cited for severe human rights abuses. The country’s strict religious conservatism, which it also promotes abroad, bars women from most workplaces and from driving cars, and women often can’t leave their home without a male escort.

The Obama administration has long been conflicted on how close a relationship it wants with Saudi leaders. On the one hand, they are crucial allies in combating Islamic extremism, not to mention key suppliers of oil to world markets. Saudi Arabia has remained insulated from the Arab Spring, providing stability in an unstable part of the world. But the kingdom continues to be criticized for human rights abuses and oppressing women, which can make for some uncomfortable diplomacy.

“You’re always operating in a place where you can’t stand anything they do,” said one former Clinton administration official. Hillary Clinton herself, Obama’s first secretary of state, has told associates of her discomfort working closely with a country so hostile to women’s rights.

Whether Salman, who is believed to be in ill health, can continue to provide stability remains to be seen; for now, Western officials have broadly welcomed the “swift succession,” said a senior adviser to one Western president.

Meanwhile, the White House is keeping an eye on the second in line to the throne, 55-year-old Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the kingdom’s former counterterrorism chief and the first potential monarch of his generation — a grandson of the Saudi founder instead of a son. With a pro-Western mentality and frequent meetings in Washington with Obama’s homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and others, presidential advisers see him as “our guy.”

Whether bin Nayef will join Salman in the room with Obama is still being worked out. But he’s expected to be part of the meetings in Riyadh which will also include a number of top American officials, including National Security Adviser Susan Rice and soon-to-depart counselor to the president John Podesta, who accompanied the president to India.

As for Obama, there was some speculation in France and Washington last week that he might add a brief stop in Paris to smooth any ruffled feathers and pay his respects to the Charlie Hebdo victims. So far, that’s not on the revised schedule.