Obama Offers Assurance to Saudis on Syria Stance --- RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Obama reassured King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Friday that the United States remained committed to strengthening the moderate opposition in the Syrian civil war, administration officials said. -- But aides declined to reveal whether Mr. Obama and the king agreed to any significant expansion of the covert program to train and arm the Syrian opposition. Relations between the two countries have become strained in recent months, in part over Saudi frustration with the United States’ reluctance to provide arms that could end up in the hands of jihadists and extremists in Syria. -- “The emergence of some more extremist elements within the opposition only reinforces the need to strengthen the more moderate opposition,” a senior administration official told reporters in Riyadh after a two-hour meeting at the king’s palatial desert compound. “We have been improving that coordination and planning with our partners and allies.” -- Mr. Obama met with Abdullah at the end of the president’s weeklong tour through Europe, which focused primarily on bolstering the European response to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine. In Saudi Arabia, the president shifted his focus to another region racked by conflict. -- Officials said the face-to-face meeting with King Abdullah was an opportunity to confront the perception of a serious split between the United States and Saudi Arabia. -- Saudi Arabia and other gulf states have favored a greater effort to arm and train rebels who have taken up arms against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Last year, however, the White House abruptly shelved plans for a military strike after Mr. Assad agreed to a Russian proposal to get rid of his chemical weapons arsenal. --- Saudi leaders have also expressed alarm at Mr. Obama’s diplomatic initiative with Iran to halt much of that country’s nuclear program, which they consider a serious threat to the region. Officials said Iran was a key topic of discussion between the president and the king. -- American officials described the perception of a rift as overstated, and while conceding some differences in approach on Syria and Iran, they added that the meeting underlined the enduring alliance of the two countries. -- “Our strategic interests are much more aligned than different,” an official said, speaking anonymously in order to discuss the private meeting between the leaders. --- Egypt has been another point of contention between the United States and Saudi Arabia, which supported the Egyptian military’s ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s democratically elected president. Mr. Rhodes said the United States was concerned about the “shockingly large” number of death sentences recently handed down in Egypt. - More, MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MICHAEL R. GORDON, NYTimes