Riyadh: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Thursday in a visit focused primarily on discussing shared security concerns about regional rival Iran.
Ahead of his arrival in the capital Riyadh, Pompeo said he'd also raise with the Saudi leadership concerns about human rights and the cases of dual Saudi-American citizens who are either imprisoned in the kingdom or barred from traveling abroad. Following his meeting at the royal palace with the king, Pompeo headed to a Saudi air base where some 2,500 US troops are stationed in response to threats from Iran.
The US military presence in the kingdom at the Prince Sultan Air Base includes a squadron of US Air Force F-15E fighters that fly daily missions over Iraq and Syria and two American Patriot missile batteries prepared to knock down any Iranian attack against the Saudi kingdom.
American troops were sent to Saudi Arabia last summer as part of the Trump administration's efforts to beef up the United States' military presence in the Middle
East.