U.S. Says Iran Is Meddling In Bahrain
By Nathan Hodge, Wall Street Journal, April 7, 2011

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the US has "evidence" of Iranian meddling in Bahrain and other Middle Eastern countries hit by political turmoil. Mr. Gates didn't reveal what proof the US has of alleged Iranian interference. But he said face-to-face discussions in Riyadh on Wednesday with Saudi King Abdullah centered in part on ways Iran has sought to take advantage of the recent political turbulence in the region.

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At the invitation of the Bahraini royal family, Saudi Arabia has sent troops into neighboring Bahrain to quell the protests, a move that has driven a wedge between Riyadh and Washington.

The U.S. has criticized the incursion and instead tried to persuade Bahrain's rulers to soothe the protesters with political liberalization. The Saudis were disturbed by the Obama administration's willingness to jettison its longtime Egyptian ally, Hosni Mubarak.

With those tensions as a backdrop, Mr. Gates wanted to reassure Saudi Arabia's leaders of continued U.S. military cooperation. Saudi Arabia is currently the top buyer of U.S. military hardware, and committed last year to a $60 billion arms package. The deal, the largest U.S. arms sale in history, includes F-15 fighter jets and a range of helicopters.

A senior defense official said Mr. Gates would report "good news" on the progress of the weapons sale. The official also said Mr. Gates would discuss potential upgrades to Saudi Arabia's ballistic missile defenses.

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Interesting sentence in this article:

What is Sudan hiding about the air strike it blamed on Israel?
Tuesday's attack by fighter jets demolished a car and killed its two passengers, which reportedly included an Islamist responsible for supplying weapons to Hamas.
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Ha'aretz, April 7, 2011

...If Israel is responsible for the attack, as foreign media reports suggested yesterday, it would appear to be another step in Israel's global campaign to stop Iranian arms smuggling into the region....

Gates meets Saudi King amid tensions
By Laura Rozen, The Envoy @ Yahoo News, April 6, 2011, 3:57 PM ET

Defense Secretary Bob Gates was in Saudi Arabia today for a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah, at a low point in U.S.-Saudi relations.

Gates' one-on-one meeting with the Saudi monarch Wednesday was expected to be "lengthy and tense,"....

The Saudis have signaled their displeasure in ways subtle and harder to ignore. Gates was in neighboring Bahrain last month and had been due to meet the King when the Saudis abruptly informed the U.S. delegation that a visit at that time wouldn't be possible, as the King was unwell.

Two days after Gates' meetings in the region, some 2,000 Saudi troops, along with 500 police from the United Arab Emirates, moved into Bahrain. The maneuver completely blindsided Washington, and starkly demonstrated Riyadh's sharp displeasure with what it perceived as the United States badgering Bahrain's Sunni leaders to do more to strike up a national dialogue with anti-government protesters, many of them from Bahrain's Shiite majority.

The "Arab spring"--and Washington's encouragement of political reforms among allied Arab regimes--has created profound anxiety in Riyadh, and empowered Saudi counter-reformers, writes former CIA and NSC official Bruce Riedel....