Word: saudi
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...particular, Syria and Saudi Arabia have long been on opposite sides of a deep rift in the Arab world, pitting those countries that are allied with the U.S. - including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt - against those countries and militant groups such as Syria, Hamas and Hizballah, which have opposed American power in the region and are at war with Israel. That rivalry deepened after the assassination of Hariri, who was Riyadh's main ally in Beirut, and got personal during the 2006 war in Lebanon, when Assad implied that the King and other Arab leaders who had criticized the Hizballah...
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia doesn't usually travel light. An official visit from the 86-year-old monarch typically involves an entourage large enough to fill at least five jet airliners and includes a mobile medical clinic, a handful of his four wives and 22 children, and an ample selection of senior royal advisers and cabinet ministers...
...leader has hosted a growing number of heads of state and world leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who have sought Syria's cooperation in settling many of the region's seemingly intractable disputes. (See pictures of President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia...
...several factors have been pushing the two countries back together. Though Syria survived the efforts of the Bush Administration and Saudi Arabia to isolate the country politically, it faces huge economic challenges as it switches from a Soviet-style economy to a market-driven model. Syria has been touting itself to investors as a future regional industrial and transportation hub. But it will need plenty of Saudi money and Western know-how - not to mention improved diplomatic relations - in order to make that great economic leap forward...
...Syria has been slowly accommodating American and Saudi positions on several issues as well as opening an embassy in Beirut, gracefully accepting the electoral defeat of its Lebanese allies in June, and restricting the flow of foreign fighters across Syrian land into Iraq...