US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrived in Riyadh on Saturday to attend a landmark meeting between officials from Saudi Arabia and Iraq aimed at improving relations between the two countries and countering Iran's growing regional influence.

US officials see a new axis that unites Riyadh and Baghdad as central to countering Iran's growing influence from the Arabian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, particularly as the Iraqi government struggles to rebuild recently liberated Daesh strongholds and confronts a newly assertive Kurdish independence movement.

The chief US diplomat flew into the King Salman Air Base a little more than a week after President Donald Trump unveiled a strategy to contain Iran and compel Tehran to agree to close what he charged are flaws in the multinational 2015 deal designed to prevent Iran developing nuclear weapons.

Tillerson's only official meeting on Saturday was a working dinner with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir.

He was stopping in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of a six-day trip that will also take him to Qatar, Pakistan, India and Switzerland. Today, Tillerson is due to attend the inaugural session of the Saudi-Iraqi Coordination Council.

Source: Khaleej Times