Obama Bids To Mend Fences With Gulf Royals At Camp David

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WASHINGTON: Barack Obama will whisk six Gulf leaders away to his Camp David presidential retreat Thursday, hoping to salvage a fence-mending summit already bedeviled by disagreements and royal no-shows.

The bucolic Catoctin Mountain getaway, synonymous with Middle East peacemaking during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, will again be a venue for attempts at reconciliation.

President Obama faces a tough task of convincing assorted emirs, princes and sheikhs that his willingness to negotiate with Iran does not represent a pivot away from long-standing allies.

As a precursor to the meeting, Obama on Wednesday wooed two powerful Saudi princes to the Oval Office.