03/06/2009 US President Barack Obama landed on Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, opening a five-day trip to try to improve relations between the United States and the Muslim world and push for progress in settling the Arab-Israeli conflict.
 
The centerpiece of the president's trip will be a speech Thursday in Cairo, billed as an address to the Muslim world, in which advisors say Obama will transmit a message based on shared roots, common experience and mutual respect.
 
At this first stop, the US president was to hold private talks with King Abdullah on Mideast peace negotiations, regional security and energy issues.
 
Obama will deliver his long-promised address to the Muslim world from the campus of Cairo University in Egypt on Thursday. The address, which will be televised and distributed at websites in an attempt to reach the broadest possible international audience, marks a formal attempt by the president to reengage the United States with the leaders and people of Arab nations, many alienated by the past administration's prosecution of the war in Iraq and its practices in the detainment, treatment and interrogation of suspected terrorists in the region and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
 
At the same time, the White House readily concedes that no single address can cause a sea change in U.S. relations with a region where polling shows that a majority of those living in Arab nations and territories hold a dim view of the American administration, particularly in the Palestinian territories.
 
But the aim of the president's previous tour of Turkey, the Cairo address and continuing diplomatic initiatives in the region, is clear, '' Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary says: "What is important is that we demonstrate that the United States wants to pursue a different relationship and ensure that Muslims around the world understand the message of the United States: That we share common hopes and dreams, and that we can work together to fulfill those hopes and dreams… separating that from that the extremism and extremists that wish to do us harm.''
 
The US president plans to spend the night at King Abdullah's farm outside of Riyadh. Following a red-carpeted arrival ceremony with the king at the royal airport terminal, Obama was scheduled to travel to the farm where Abdullah keeps a stable of more than 100 stallions.
 
Saudi Arabia is a key part of Obama's plan for Mideast peace. The White House has been pressuring Israel to give ground on the volatile issue of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory, planning to use that to coax concessions from so-called “moderate” Arab states.
 
Progress on Mideast peace talks, in turn, is crucial to Obama's goal of improving U.S. standing among Muslims. The American image has been tarnished by the invasion of Iraq and U.S. detainee policies, but also has suffered from perceptions that U.S. administrations unquestioningly back Israeli interests against Palestinians. Obama has altered U.S. policy on Iraq and detention practices, but wants to show progress on Mideast peace.
 
Obama last week called the speech in Cairo an opportunity to deliver a "broader message about how the United States can change for the better" its relationship with the Muslim world. "That will require, I think, recognition on both the part of the United States as well as many majority-Muslim countries about each other, a better sense of understanding and the possibilities of achieving common ground," he said.
 
Polls in Arab nations show that approval of the U.S. leadership, while still generally low, has risen in Egypt and seven other countries since Obama took office.