Bin Laden Issues Second Message As Obama Meets With Saudi Leader

June 3, 2009 11:16 a.m. EST

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AHN) - Only hours after his deputy released a statement calling President Barack Obama a "criminal," Osama Bin Laden issued a message on Wednesday marking the U.S. president's arrival in Riyadh. Obama is set to give a speech in Cairo "reaching out" to the Islamic world, but Bin Laden said the American is only "antagonizing Muslims."

Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia early Wednesday for a four-day trip that aides say will continue his outreach to the Muslim world and re-iterate his support for key European allies. Much anticipated is his speech in Cairo that will discuss "how to bridge differences" and settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a long-delayed visit to wounded U.S. troops in Germany.

Shortly after the President's arrival in Riyadh, Al Jazeera played an audio recording of Bid Laden saying Obama "has followed the steps of his predecessor in antagonizing Muslims ... and laying the foundation for long wars."

"Obama and his administration have sowed new seeds of hatred against America," the al-Qaeda leader added, referring to the U.S. support for Pakistan troops fighting militants in the Swat Valley. "Let the American people prepare for to harvest the crops of what the leaders of the White House plant in the next years and decades."

The Taliban have occupied the Swat Valley in Pakistan following a peace agreement with the government in February. But they have been attacking security forces and spreading into the adjacent areas, causing millions to flee the area as they battle with government troops.

American officials, concerned about Pakistan's nuclear weapons arsenal and militant attacks only 60 miles from the capital, had initially criticized Islamabad for its inaction, then later expressed confidence about Pakistan's efforts to fight the Taliban.

Bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a message Tuesday night saying Obama's "bloody messages were received and are still being received by Muslims, and they will not be concealed by public relations campaigns or by farcical visits or elegant words."

Zawahiri's voice recording was posted on an al-Qaeda website and, like Bin Laden's, could not be confirmed.

Obama is meeting with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz about energy, Middle East peace and efforts to fight extremism, before proceeding to Egypt on Thursday to hold talks with with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, delivers a major address and visits a mosque.

He briefly spoke to reporters before his bilateral with the King, emphasizing the "long history of friendship" between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

"I thought it was very important to come to the place where Islam began and to seek His Majesty's counsel and to discuss with him many of the issues that we confront here in the Middle East," Obama added.

King Abdullah had replied, "Thank you, Mr. President, for the kind words and the kind sentiments expressed within them. I am not surprised, given the historicand strategic ties between our two countries, I believe that go back to the time of the meeting between the late Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the late King Abdul-Aziz."

Obama's speech in Cairo is much anticipated. It "will be an important part of his engagement with the Muslim world which began in his inaugural," Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a briefing last week. The President will also call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Obama is the first American president to use the word "Muslim" in an inaugural speech. He had also given his first TV interview after assuming office to Al Arabiya, saying, "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy."

In March, he issued a video message to all Muslims celebrating Nowruz or the Iranian New Year. He followed this up with a trip to Ankara, where he addressed the Turkish Parliament with reminders that his own father was Muslim, and held a town hall with Turkish and international students.

The White House has pointed out that Obama's speech will be hosted by Cairo University and Al Azhar University, which is "one of the oldest universities in the region, to jointly host the event, underscoring the storied history and learnedness of Islam."

Some human rights advocates are raising concerns that the speech symbolically gives U.S. approval to what critics say are Egypt's repressive laws, but the White House has said Obama "will not hesitate to bring up [with Mubarak] some of the important civil society issues, democracy issues, that he has brought up with the Chinese and others."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had also met with visiting Egyptian Democracy activists last week and told reporters, "We always raise democracy and human rights. It is a core pillar of American foreign policy. There is a great awareness on the part of the Egyptian Government... And so we're going to continue to engage in that dialogue."

Obama proceeds to Germany on Friday to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, visit a concentration camp, Buchenwald, and wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Facility. His last stop is in France on Saturday, where he holds a bilateral with President Nicolas Sarkozy and gives a speech at the American cemetery in Coleville to commemorate the Allied landing in Normandy, which culminated in the liberation of Europe from the Nazis.