Obama Is Said to Plan Fence-Mending Trip to Saudi Arabia

Seeking to mend a frayed relationship with a major American ally in the Middle East, President Obama plans to travel to Saudi Arabia in March for a meeting with King Abdullah, an official with knowledge of the planning said Friday.

Mr. Obama, the official said, will seek to reassure the king of American support after a tense period in which the Saudis and other Persian Gulf allies of the United States have grown increasingly frustrated with American policies toward Iran and Syria.

Saudi officials have deep reservations about the interim nuclear deal that the United States and other major powers struck with Iran. They worry that it could presage a broader shift in American alliances from the Sunni monarchs in the gulf toward the Shiite mullahs in Iran.

Saudi Arabia has also been frustrated by Mr. Obama’s unwillingness to do more to support rebel forces in Syria. The Saudis have funneled weapons and other equipment to the rebels, in part because they view the civil war there as a proxy battle between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Iran, which is an important backer of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

These frictions have occurred during a long period in which American ties with Saudi Arabia have loosened, in part because of reduced American dependence on Saudi oil and in part because of the upheavals of the Arab Spring, which have tested American alliances.

In particular, Mr. Obama’s decision in 2011 to withdraw its support for Egypt’s embattled president, Hosni Mubarak, rattled the Saudi royal family, which feared similar popular unrest in its country.

Mr. Obama will add the stop in Saudi Arabia to a trip to Europe that will include a nuclear security summit meeting in the Netherlands, a summit meeting of the United States and the European Union in Brussels, and a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

There are no plans for the president to meet with other Persian Gulf leaders, the official said, but that could change. The Wall Street Journal first reported Mr. Obama’s plans for the stop in Saudi Arabia. The White House declined to confirm the president’s travel plans.

Mr. Obama last visited the Middle East in March 2013, stopping in Israel for meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that were dominated by concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. He also traveled to the West Bank to meet the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and to Jordan, where he met with King Abdullah II and toured the ancient cave city of Petra.

In two weeks, the president will meet the Jordanian king at Sunnylands, the desert estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif., that belonged to Walter Annenberg, the late publisher, philanthropist and ambassador. Mr. Obama last used Sunnylands to meet with President Xi Jinping of China.

For Mr. Obama, the trip to Saudi Arabia will thrust him into a very public role overseas, as a defender of the nuclear negotiations with Iran. The Saudi king has warned American officials that if Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, Saudi Arabia will seek to do so as well.